To address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, several organizations are joining forces to develop best practices for antibiotic stewardship.
Here are five things to know:
1. The Urgent Care Association will sponsor and attend an industry summit on antibiotic stewardship in the outpatient setting. The meeting will commence July 15 in Atlanta.
2. Meeting attendees will include representatives from the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at Milken Institute of Public Health at Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University, the CDC, the College of Urgent Care Medicine and the Urgent Care Foundation.
3. The UCA and CUCM also created an antibiotic stewardship toolkit highlighting responsible prescribing practices and patient education strategies.
4. The toolkit was developed based on the CDC's four core elements of outpatient antibiotic stewardship: commitment, action, tracking and reporting, and education and expertise.
5. The antibiotic stewardship toolkit can be downloaded at www.ucaoa.org/antibioticsteward.
"We take antibiotic stewardship very seriously due to the volume of patients presenting to urgent care centers and other outpatient settings each and every day," said UCA President and CUCM Board Member Sean McNeeley, MD. "This toolkit is designed to provide a foundation for healthcare organizations and providers looking to create or improve an antibiotic stewardship protocol to combat resistance."