title: Is the "low-hanging fruit" worth picking for antimicrobial stewardship programs?
abstract: A new antimicrobial stewardship program can be overwhelmed at the breadth of interventions and education required to conduct a successful program. The expression "low-hanging fruit," in reference to stewardship, refers to selecting the most obtainable targets rather than confronting more complicated management issues. These targets include intravenous-to-oral conversions, batching of intravenous antimicrobials, therapeutic substitutions, and formulary restriction. These strategies require fewer resources and less effort than other stewardship activities; however, they are applicable to a variety of healthcare settings, including limited-resource hospitals, and have demonstrated significant financial savings. Our stewardship program found that staged and systematic interventions that focus on obvious areas of need, that is, low hanging fruit, provided early successes in our expanded program with a substantial cumulative cost savings of $832,590.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, 43210, USA. debbie.goff@osumc.edu
authors.forename: Debra A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Goff
authors.forename: Karri A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Erica E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Kurt B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: Jeremy J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Jessica E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: West
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000191:economics*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents