Impact of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Introduced by Pharmacist

Abstract

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are essential to optimize the prescription of antibiotics. In this study, we introduced restriction of 4^th cephems and prospective audit of carbapenems. The days of therapy per 1000 patient-days of 4^th cephems significantly decreased from 51.87 to 28.09 after restriction of 4^th cephems, and those of carbapenems significantly decreased from 9.35 to 3.80 after prospective audit of carbapenems. All antibiotic costs were reduced by 400,000 yen (18%) monthly. The susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed no difference between the pre- and post-introduction. A hospital policy to optimize antimicrobial prescription introduced by pharmacist decreased the days of therapy per 1000 patient-days of 4^th cephems and carbapenems and antibiotic costs.