A number of educational sessions at the 2019 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition focus on the critical topic of antimicrobial stewardship. Among these, on Sunday, December 8 at 10.00 a.m., CDC Medical Epidemiologist Arjun Srinivasan, MD, CAPT, FSHEA, USPHS, presents the government’s perspective in CDC Update 2019: Antibiotic Stewardship in America’s Hospitals. This session will describe the implementation of the CDC’s core elements in U.S. hospitals; explain the use of the standardized antimicrobial administration ratio as a tool to guide stewardship efforts; and list key focus areas for hospital stewardship programs.
 
Following this session on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., Missouri-based copresenters Journey McCarty, PharmD and Laura Butkievich, PharmD, MHA, MSHI, BCPS, host a session titled Antimicrobial Time Out, which will explain the importance of an antimicrobial time-out process; describe how to incorporate an antimicrobial time-out process into pharmacist workflow; and discuss the process of training pharmacists with documentation tools within an electronic medical record.

Next, Brandon Hill, PharmD, BCPS, clinical pharmacist–infectious diseases/antimicrobial stewardship, University of Virginia Health System, and Katherine Lusardi, PharmD, BCIDP, BCPS-AQ, UAMS Medical Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, present Rapid Diagnostic Technologies and Antimicrobial Stewardship: Better Together. (December 8 at 12:30 p.m.). Evaluating current rapid diagnostic technologies available to enhance antimicrobial stewardship; recommending rapid diagnostic technology investments most appropriate and beneficial for a stewardship program; and developing a multidisciplinary algorithm for implementation and evaluation of rapid diagnostic technologies comprise the learning objectives.

Addressing the future of responsible stewardship is a session titled Young Leaders, Big Responsibilities: Preparing New Practitioners for Antimicrobial Stewardship (Sunday, December 8 at 3:00 p.m.). Copresenters Brandon Hill, PharmD, BCPS, and Erin McCreary, PharmD, BCIDP, BCPS, Univesity of Pittsburgh Medical Center, examine the role of the pharmacist leader in antimicrobial stewardship programs; identify ways new practitioners can design and implement antimicrobial stewardship initiatives; and teach effective communication strategies to gain success with antimicrobial stewardship initiatives.

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