It also included a prospective audit with intervention, feedback, formulary restriction and preauthorization which were implemented in combination with rigorous infection control policies and protocols to prevent the further spread of multi-resistant pathogens.
In the guidelines for developing an institutional program to enhance antimicrobial stewardship there are two core strategies described: 1) prospective audit with feedback and 2) formulary restriction and pre-authorisation [ 4].
Antibiotic stewardship strategies are commonly classified as persuasive (education, audit and feedback) or restrictive (restricted formulary, prior authorisation) or structural (eg, computer decision support systems).
In order of frequency, predominant strategies were formulary-related interventions (40% of studies), disease management (25%), monitoring and feedback (13%), educational interventions (12%), and collaborative care involving pharmacists (10%).
Encouraging providers to respond to the feedback completes a full circle of shared responsibility, and generates unit and hospital-wide changes to the formulary and CPOE system.
We have tried to produce a more-effective feedback ASP intervention by incorporating previously successful strategies in the literature [ 21- 23] with our own nonrestricted formulary based face-to-face decision support.
This tool is known as a "formulary finder".
These are handed out by the British National Formulary (BNF).
