Singapore General Hospital (SGH) recently announced that a long term study it conducted has led to over 100 patients a year being taken off antibiotics after just a day, resulting in shorter hospital stays of about a week and cost savings of close to S$11,000 per patient.
Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Infectious Diseases Programme Leader, writes about the significance of the study and why we should care about how antibiotics are prescribed in Singapore hospitals.
“One key way to improve antibiotic prescription in hospitals (as well as in primary care) is to create a culture of ‘antimicrobial stewardship’, where antibiotics are understood to be rare and precious resources to be preserved,” wrote A/Prof Hsu.
Antimicrobial stewardship is a ‘coherent set of actions which promote using antimicrobials in ways that ensure sustainable access to effective therapy for all who need them’, according to the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’ Study Group on Antimicrobial Stewardship.
The concept of antimicrobial stewardship is endorsed by the World Health Organization and many international professional organisations. Within hospitals, it encompasses multiple interventions including, but not limited to: prescriber education, antibiotic treatment guidelines for common infections, prescription restriction, antibiotic stop orders, and audit and feedback.
Read on to find out more about Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes and the interventions employed in public hospitals in Singapore: