Antimicrobial Stewardship in Primary Care

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that at least 30% of antibiotic prescriptions dispensed from the outpatient setting are unnecessary. Primary care providers are perhaps the most influential healthcare providers in addressing the issue of antibiotic resistance, as inappropriately prescribing antibiotics remains high.

Listen to pediatric experts discuss antimicrobial stewardship

In this episode Sarah Parker, MD, and Nicole Poole, MD, join us to discuss the use of antimicrobial stewardship programs and how to implement them in primary care.

Dr. Parker is the Medical Director of Children’s Hospital Colorado Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Poole is an infectious disease physician focused on outpatient antimicrobial stewardship at Children’s Colorado and is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In this episode, our experts discuss:

• Why antimicrobial stewardship in pediatrics matters
• What handshake stewardship at Children’s Colorado means
• Our involvement in clinical care pathways
• Evidence-based interventions and behavioral changes that have helped in the area of antimicrobial stewardship
• How pediatricians can navigate parent pressure to prescribe antibiotics when they aren’t necessary
• Four communication techniques for antimicrobial prescribing
• Specific diagnoses that tend to yield more overprescribing than others
• The role of back-up prescribing or watchful waiting in antimicrobial stewardship
• Whether parents are willing to return for a recheck within three days in a watchful waiting approach during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Key considerations providers should keep in mind about prescribing antibiotics
• Potential downfalls of utilizing telemedicine and potentially overprescribing antibiotics
• Joint commission regulations related to prescribing antibiotics