Dr. Michele Evink, PharmD, MS, BCGP, FASCP, Pharmacy Manager at Clarke County Hospital (CCH), has been recognized by the Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists for completing their Antimicrobial Stewardship Certificate Program. The program has been in place for fifteen years and uses classes and a real world project to give participants exceptional knowledge in the use of antibiotics.
Antimicrobial Stewardship is a coordinated effort to promote the responsible use of antimicrobials. By maximizing the use of antimicrobials, like antibiotics, an organization like CCH can improve patient outcomes, reduce antimicrobial resistance, and prevent the spread of infections. In a hospital or clinic, it is important to have antimicrobial stewardship to ensure antibiotics aren’t being used in a way that could lead to resistant bacteria. At the same time, the patient remains at the center of the care and treating their infections to help them heal is always the highest goal.
At Clarke County Hospital, Michele leads the antimicrobial stewardship committee. The committee includes a provider as well as employees from administration, the lab, nursing, infection control and pharmacy. The team meets quarterly to look at hospital wide data, create education for employees and providers, look at local trends in which bacteria are sensitive to which antibiotics and put programs in place to maximize the best use of antibiotics.
Each facility is different and the sensitivity and resistance to bacteria is dependent on many factors. Without antimicrobial stewardship, the antibiotics with the most coverage might be used instead of targeting the location, the bacteria and the infection. Over time, this will lead to the strongest antibiotics with the largest coverage being overused and increasingly resistant bacteria. New infections would require stronger and stronger antibiotics to treat infections. Eventually, we might run out of antibiotics to treat resistant infections.
Clarke County Hospital has had an Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee in place for over seven years. Programs to review culture data, maximize antimicrobial use and provide education have been in place to safeguard our patients. This nationally recognized certificate program provided additional ideas and tools to continue to provide excellent care.
Clarke County Hospital was selected by Compass Healthcare Collaborative and the Iowa Department of Public Health to receive a grant to cover Dr. Evink’s tuition for this program. The program takes approximately a year to complete.
For more information, please contact Shannon Harris, Communications Manager at CCH, at (641) 342-5487.