Antimicrobial stewardship programs have been recommended to promote optimal antimicrobial use in these settings [ 3].
Several strategies to optimise the use of antibiotics, often referred to as antibiotic stewardship programs, have been developed.
We feel that antimicrobial stewardship programs have a significant potential to involve ID specialists in the care of patients with increasing numbers and sooner during hospitalization.
While antimicrobial stewardship programs have rather consistently shown significant improvement in antimicrobial utilization, there are very few studies examining meaningful clinical outcome measures such as duration of hospitalization, mortality rates, or even quality indicators such as patient satisfaction.
You have recently read that hospital-wide antibiotic stewardship programs have the potential to improve the quality and safety of care, and to reduce the emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms and overall costs.
However, according to medical literature, up to 50%% of hospital antibiotic use is inappropriate [ 4, 5], and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs have been recommended to improve appropriate antibiotic use [ 6].
For instance, although it is well accepted that antibiotic overuse increases the prevalence of resistance, current antimicrobial stewardship programs have demonstrated neither effects on patient outcomes nor even that decreased antibiotic treatment leads to decreased antibiotic resistance [ 45].
Attempts to control the spread of MRSA in ICUs using a series of control measures such as active surveillance cultures, contact isolation of colonized or infected cases, decolonization therapy, and antimicrobial stewardship programs have been met with variable degrees of success [ 2- 6].
But an elaborate Energy Department program to maintain and refurbish warheads, the Stockpile Stewardship Program, has proved highly effective.
For the past two decades, the Park Stewardship program has not only engaged youth from every background to restore vital habitat and cultural resources, but it has provided a pathway for the next generation of conservationists, civic leaders, scientists, poets and park rangers.
