title: Differences in antimicrobial susceptibility among hospitals in an integrated health system.
abstract: We evaluated the differences in antimicrobial susceptibility among hospitals in three different integrated healthcare systems. Each system provided antibiogram-susceptibility reports from representative hospitals. Reports were analyzed for statistically significant differences between hospitals in a given system for nine important organisms. We found numerous significant interhospital differences in antimicrobial-susceptibility patterns within health systems. For this reason, the practice of combining antibiotic-susceptibility data into a systemwide antibiogram should be discouraged.
authors.affiliation: Pfizer Inc, New York, New York 10017, USA.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Lubowski
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Woon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States