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Long-term effect of intravenous antimicrobial use in a pharmacist-led ASP at a small Japanese acute care hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2024

Yasuaki Tagashira
Affiliation:
Tokyo Medical and Dental University
Yasuhiro Sasaki
Affiliation:
Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Medical Center

Abstract

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Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a crucial, healthcare issue for which many countries have devised a national action plan. In Japan as well, antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) are being implemented in acute care hospitals under this policy framework. Clinical pharmacists play a central role in ASP, often jointly with infectious disease (ID) physicians. However, in Japan, a shortage of ID physicians has resulted in some ASP being led solely by pharmacists. While reports of the short-term effects of this situation are emerging, the long-term impact of pharmacist-led ASP is still largely unknown in Japan. The present study retrospectively examined the long-term effects of pharmacist-led ASP in a small, Japanese, acute care hospital. Method: The present study examined a pharmacist-led ASP in an acute care hospital (287 beds) in Japan which was launched in August 2015 and assessed the duration of therapy per 1000 patient-days (DOT) as the primary outcome by comparing the pre-intervention period (April 2013-July 2015) with the intervention period (August 2015-March 2023) using linear regression analysis. Additionally, segmented time-series analysis was conducted for each, additional intervention, and the impact of reduced activity due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic during the intervention. The DOT at the study center were compared with the national average of facilities implementing ASP. Result: While the DOT for all intravenous antimicrobials showed a slight increase on linear regression (r=0.01; P=0.1), the DOT of antipseudomonal intravenous antimicrobials significantly decreased (r=-0.027; P < 0 .01). Moreover, a significant reduction in DOT was observed immediately after the initiation of prospective review and feedback for carbapenems and daily prospective review and feedback for all intravenous antimicrobials (-3.2 and -2.4; P < 0 .001 for the intercept). An increase in DOT was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic-related reduction in activity time, and a rapid decline was observed upon the resumption of activities. Conversely, the average, nationwide DOT significantly increased for all intravenous antimicrobials as well as for antipseudomonal intravenous antimicrobials (r=0.02 and r=0.004; P < 0 .01) Conclusion: Sustaining an effective, pharmacist-led antimicrobial stewardship program led to a continual decrease in the DOT of antipseudomonal intravenous antimicrobials in a small, Japanese, acute care hospital despite a nationwide increase in their use following implementation of the national AMR action plan. Detailed analysis of pharmacists’ activities across multiple facilities is necessary to verify these effects.

Type
Antibiotic Stewardship
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America