title: Quality indicators on the use of antimicrobials in critically ill patients.
abstract: Quality indicators have been applied to many areas of health care in recent years, including intensive care. However, they have not been specifically developed and validated for antimicrobial use in critically ill patients. Antimicrobials play a key role in intensive care units not only in the prognosis of each individual patient, but also in the development of resistance and changes in the flora in this setting. Evaluating the use of these agents is complex in the intensive care unit, however, because the indications vary greatly and antimicrobial treatment is often changed during admission. We designed and developed specific quality indicators regarding the use of antimicrobials in critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit. These indicators are proposed as a tool for application in intensive care units to detect problems in the use of antimicrobials. Future trials are needed, however, to validate these indicators in a large population over time.
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: pvera@santpau.cat.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vera
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palomar
authors.affiliation: Intensive Care Unit, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Álvarez-Lerma
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016638:Critical Illness; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents
keywords: Antimicrobials; Antimicrobianos; Critically ill patients; Indicadores de calidad; Pacientes críticos; Quality indicators