Tackling the AMR backlog
COVID has been a huge setback for antmicrobial resistance work. How can better data help AMR recover?
A CCIO from a large city hospital told me a few weeks ago that he was worried about the number of people on waiting lists that would not live to receive treatment. Over the past few weeks, the media started to focus on the growth of waiting lists.
But there is another hidden backlog. Antibiotic usage is growing during the crisis. Setting back years of hard earned progress in antimicrobial resistance strategies.
Our high level data suggest that at the peak in April/ May hospital admissions dropped by 60%. Antimicrobial usage was down only 45%. The stresses caused by the pandemic mean that improvements delivered through strong policy and attention to detail from thousands of staff are leaking away.
Triscribe’s first focus was developing analytics for antibiotic usage. We partnered with University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and the Health Foundation on the ADAPTA project.
We were delighted to see that the team at UHS have been nominated for an antibiotic guardian award in the prescribing and stewardship category this year. The antimicrobial pharmacy, prescribing safety and Informatics teams have done a fantastic job.
The UHS informatics team developed a dashboard that analyses individual patient information. Triscribe’s role is to provide analytics of usage across the hospital. We now have five analyses of different dimensions covering both prescribing and administration. Get in touch if you want to find out more.
Our Antibiotic Analytics are ready to be setup and used in any hospital that has EPMA. We can combine data from multiple EPMA systems. Our filters allow you to drill down to the exact information you need.
This provides a more complete and precise view of usage than the figures reported for monitoring. Better information leads to better decisions:
Using trends over time demonstrates the impact of clinical interventions and helps investigate infection risks.
Population level analytics highlight changes in prescribing practice or developing safety risks.
Fast, easy reporting reduces the burden of routine paperwork
Enough of the sales pitch. Antimicrobial stewardship is a vital long term challenge for public health across the world. Like many such challenges, COVID has disrupted progress. Its a great example where better use of hospital data can help recovery. The antibiotic guardian awards highlight some great innovations. Wider understanding and adoption of these ideas could make a real difference.
Hit reply to this email if you would like Triscribe to help your hospital with the recovery.