Combined antibiogram for hospitals with 50+ beds--Alaska, 2002.
Hospital antibiograms are compiled from facility microbiology laboratories and list specific organism-antimicrobial susceptibility combinations. Antibiograms can then be used by facility health care providers to guide choices of antimicrobials for treatment. For a specific time period, antibiograms from different facilities can be aggregated. These summaries are quick and easy to compile and can provide an overview of antimicrobial susceptibility in a region. We aggregated year 2002 antibiograms from nine Alaska hospitals with 50 or more beds. Data presented here suggest that a combined antibiogram can provide a rough summary of susceptibility estimates statewide, and demonstrate trends in decreasing susceptibility, as seen for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. For future antibiogram summaries, other organisms can be added as they gain in relevance or concern, or other antimicrobials added as usage or resistance patterns change.
Castrodale
Louis
L
Alaska Section of Epidemiology, Division of Public Health, Anchorage, Alaska 99524-0249, USA. louisa_castrodale@health.state.ak.us
Hennessy
Thomas
T
D000413:Alaska; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents