To describe the implementation of an outpatient UTI intervention and its impact on UTI management.

Quasi-experimental retrospective controlled study.

Outpatient clinicians practicing in emergency and primary care settings within 8 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.

An intervention conducted utilizing the CDC Core Elements Antibiotic Stewardship framework between September 2022 and July 2023. Actions included academic detailing, audit feedback, and updated reflex culture procedures. Logistic regression adjusted for covariates (risk ratio [RR], 95% confidence interval [CI]), and a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis compared multiple UTI management metrics between intervention and control facilities.

There were 278,419 and 157,067 genitourinary (GU) tract qualifying visits [mean (SD) age 71.7 (13.9), 92.6% male] within 8 intervention and 8 control sites, respectively. Antibiotic prescribing rates for a broad-based GU tract metric that included UTIs pre/post implementation were [N, (%)] 12,688 (8.0) and 4,062 (8.0) within intervention sites and 5,686 (6.3) and 1,920 (6.8) within control sites, respectively [DID aRR 0.97 (0.92, 1.02)]. Appropriate treatment selection for uncomplicated UTI (uUTI) pre/post implementation was 5,994(76.9) and 1,945(79.9), compared to 2,519(74.6) and 977(82.1) within control sites, respectively [DID aRR 0.94 (0.91, 0.98)]. uUTI appropriate treatment duration pre/post implementation was 5,709 (73.3) and 1,927 (79.2), compared to 2,469 (73.1) and 869 (73.0) within control sites, respectively [DID aRR 1.08 (1.03, 1.13)]. No evidence of diagnostic shifting or return GU visits post-implementation was observed.

Implementation of an outpatient UTI intervention in a predominantly male population was feasible but marginally effective.

Postdischarge antibiotics are often sub-optimal or unnecessary. This study sought to measure the risk of diarrhea in recently hospitalized patients treated with postdischarge antibiotics

Retrospective cohort study.

125 acute-care hospitals in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Patients hospitalized within VHA during 2018–2021.

The primary exposure was postdischarge antibiotics. The primary outcome was time to C. difficile testing, which served as a surrogate marker for clinically significant diarrhea. Only tests that were performed during the 30 days after discharge and before all-cause hospital readmission were captured. We constructed a final Cox proportional hazards model with 27 fixed-effect predictors as well as a random intercept for each hospital.

There were 1,686,819 qualifying admissions, and 333,310 (19.8%) received postdischarge antibiotics. There were 13,387 patients (0.8%) who had a test for C. difficile done. Among those tested, the median time to testing was 6.7 days for those tested while on postdischarge antibiotics and 14.1 days for those tested while not on postdischarge antibiotics. Compared to patients not on postdischarge antibiotics, the hazard ratio for testing was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.29–1.51) among patients on low-risk postdischarge antibiotics and 1.56 (95% CI, 1.42–1.71) among those on high-risk postdischarge antibiotics.

In this national VHA hospital cohort, patients prescribed postdischarge antibiotics had a 40–56% increased risk of C. difficile testing compared to those not prescribed postdischarge antibiotics. Efforts to optimize antibiotic-prescribing at hospital discharge, particularly by reducing excessive duration and avoiding high-risk agents, may help mitigate these risks.

Bacterial resistance is known to diminish the effectiveness of antibiotics for treatment of urinary tract infections. Review of recent healthcare and antibiotic exposures, as well as prior culture results is recommended to aid in selection of empirical treatment. However, the optimal approach for assessing these data is unclear. We utilized data from the Veterans Health Administration to evaluate relationships between culture and treatment history and the subsequent probability of antibiotic-resistant bacteria identified in urine cultures to further guide clinicians in understanding these risk factors.

Using the XGBoost algorithm, a retrospective cohort of outpatients with urine culture results and antibiotic prescriptions from 2017 to 2022 was used to develop models for predicting antibiotic resistance for three classes of antibiotics: cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) obtained from urine cultures. Model performance was assessed using Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC) and Precision-Recall AUC (PRAUC)

There were 392,647 prior urine cultures identified in 214,656 patients. A history of bacterial resistance to the specific treatment was the most important predictor of subsequent resistance for positive cultures, followed by a history of specific antibiotic exposure. The models performed better than previously established risk factors alone, especially for fluoroquinolone resistance, with an AUC of .84 and PRAUC of .70. Notably, the models’ performance improved markedly (AUC = .90, PRAUC = .87) when applied to cultures from patients with a known history of resistance to any of the antibiotic classes.

These predictive models demonstrate potential in guiding antibiotic prescription and improving infection management.

To examine the perspectives of caregivers that are not part of the antibiotic stewardship program (ASP) leadership team (eg, physicians, nurses, and clinical pharmacists), but who interact with ASPs in their role as frontline healthcare workers.

Qualitative semistructured interviews.

The study was conducted in 2 large national healthcare systems including 7 hospitals in the Veterans’ Health Administration and 4 hospitals in Intermountain Healthcare.

We interviewed 157 participants. The current analysis includes 123 nonsteward clinicians: 47 physicians, 26 pharmacists, 29 nurses, and 21 hospital leaders.

Interviewers utilized a semistructured interview guide based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), which was tailored to the participant’s role in the hospital as it related to ASPs. Qualitative analysis was conducted using a codebook based on the CFIR.

We identified 4 primary perspectives regarding ASPs. (1) Non-ASP pharmacists considered antibiotic stewardship activities to be a high priority despite the added burden to work duties: (2) Nurses acknowledged limited understanding of ASP activities or involvement with these programs; (3) Physicians criticized ASPs for their restrictions on clinical autonomy and questioned the ability of antibiotic stewards to make recommendations without the full clinical picture; And (4) hospital leaders expressed support for ASPs and recognized the unique challenges faced by non-ASP clinical staff.

Further understanding these differing perspectives of ASP implementation will inform possible ways to improve ASP implementation across clinical roles.

To examine how individual steward characteristics (eg, steward role, sex, and specialized training) are associated with their views of antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) implementation at their institution.

Descriptive survey from a mixed-methods study.

Two large national healthcare systems; the Veterans’ Health Administration (VA) (n = 134 hospitals) and Intermountain Healthcare (IHC; n = 20 hospitals).

We sent the survey to 329 antibiotic stewards serving in 154 hospitals; 152 were physicians and 177 were pharmacists. In total, 118 pharmacists and 64 physicians from 126 hospitals responded.

The survey was grounded in constructs of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, and it assessed stewards’ views on the development and implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) at their institutions We then examined differences in stewards’ views by demographic factors.

Regardless of individual factors, stewards agreed that the ASP added value to their institution and was advantageous to patient care. Stewards also reported high levels of collegiality and self-efficacy. Stewards who had specialized training or those volunteered for the role were less likely to think that the ASP was implemented due to a mandate. Similarly volunteers and those with specialized training felt that they had authority in the antibiotic decisions made in their facility.

Given the importance of ASPs, it may be beneficial for healthcare institutions to recruit and train individuals with a true interest in stewardship.

In the absence of pyuria, positive urine cultures are unlikely to represent infection. Conditional urine reflex culture policies have the potential to limit unnecessary urine culturing. We evaluated the impact of this diagnostic stewardship intervention.

We conducted a retrospective, quasi-experimental (nonrandomized) study, with interrupted time series, from August 2013 to January 2018 to examine rates of urine cultures before versus after the policy intervention. We compared 3 intervention sites to 3 control sites in an aggregated series using segmented negative binomial regression.

The study included 6 acute-care hospitals within the Veterans’ Health Administration across the United States.

Adult patients with at least 1 urinalysis ordered during acute-care admission, excluding pregnant patients or those undergoing urological procedures, were included.

At the intervention sites, urine cultures were performed if a preceding urinalysis met prespecified criteria. No such restrictions occurred at the control sites. The primary outcome was the rate of urine cultures performed per 1,000 patient days. The safety outcome was the rate of gram-negative bloodstream infection per 1,000 patient days.

The study included 224,573 urine cultures from 50,901 admissions in 24,759 unique patients. Among the intervention sites, the overall average number of urine cultures performed did not significantly decrease relative to the preintervention period (5.9% decrease; P = 0.8) but did decrease by 21% relative to control sites (P < .01). We detected no significant difference in the rates of gram-negative bloodstream infection among intervention or control sites (P = .49).

Conditional urine reflex culture policies were associated with a decrease in urine culturing without a change in the incidence of gram-negative bloodstream infection.

To detail the activities of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiative and evaluate outcomes of the program.

Observational analysis.

The VHA is a large integrated healthcare system serving approximately 6 million individuals annually at more than 140 medical facilities.

Utilization of nationally developed resources, proportional distribution of antibiotics, changes in stewardship practices and patient safety measures were reported. In addition, inpatient antimicrobial use was evaluated before and after implementation of national stewardship activities.

Nationally developed stewardship resources were well utilized, and many stewardship practices significantly increased, including development of written stewardship policies at 92% of facilities by 2015 (P<.05). While the proportional distribution of antibiotics did not change, inpatient antibiotic use significantly decreased after VHA Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiative activities began (P<.0001). A 12% decrease in antibiotic use was noted overall. The VHA has also noted significantly declining use of antimicrobials prescribed for resistant Gram-negative organisms, including carbapenems, as well as declining hospital readmission and mortality rates. Concurrently, the VHA reported decreasing rates of Clostridium difficile infection.

The VHA National Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiative includes continuing education, disease-specific guidelines, and development of example policies in addition to other highly utilized resources. While no specific ideal level of antimicrobial utilization has been established, the VHA has shown that improving antimicrobial usage in a large healthcare system may be achieved through national guidance and resources with local implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:513–520

To assess the degree to which, from 1987 to 1990, physicians suspected tuberculosis (TB) in the first 2 hospital days in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with pulmonary disease.

Retrospective cohort study.

96 hospitals in five US cities.

2,174 adult patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome discharged with a diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia from 1987 to 1990. The diagnosis generally was not known on admission.

Physicians suspected TB in the first 2 hospital days in 66% of these patients in 1987, a rate that increased steadily to 74% in 1990. However, the extent to which physicians considered TB among female patients decreased from 76% to 71% over the 4 years. Controlling for confounding variables by multiple logistic regression, the odds that TB would be suspected early increased 1.8-fold among men (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 1.4-2.4), but not in women (OR, 0.6; CI95, 0.2-1.9). Among the five cities, the odds of early suspicion of TB increased most in New York City (OR, 3.9; CI95, 2.0-7.9).

Physicians considered TB in a timely manner in an increasing majority of male, but not female, high-risk patients during the first years of TB resurgence in the United States. Physicians must be aware of the changing epidemiology of HIV and TB, as well as their practice patterns, to prevent nosocomial transmission of this disease