Differences in antimicrobial susceptibility among hospitals in an integrated health system.
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.
Lubowski
T J
TJ
Pfizer Inc, New York, New York 10017, USA.
Woon
J L
JL
Hogan
P
P
Hwang
C C
CC
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