title: Antibiotic use in residential  aged care facilities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High infection burden among the residential aged care facility (RACF) population has long been recognised; however, existing infection prevention effort is often limited to infection surveillance activity. There is a scarcity of evidence to guide antimicrobial stewardship in the Australian RACF setting.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This review summarises the current trends in antibiotic use and multi-drug resistant (MDR) organisms, challenges related to antibiotic prescribing and areas of suboptimal antibiotic prescribing for further improvement, particularly in the Australian RACF setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is widespread antibiotic prescribing in RACF, which may lead to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Accordingly, there is an immediate need for judicious antibiotic use in this high-risk population to curb the rapid emergence of MDR organisms and other adverse consequences associated with inappropriate antibiotic use, as well as to reduce healthcare costs.
authors.affiliation: BPharm, PhD, Lecturer, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Ching Jou
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Rhonda L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Stuart
authors.forename: David C M
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kong
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents