Antimicrobial Stewardship in Community Hospitals

All prescriptions for targeted antibiotics will require phone approval by the trained PharmD during this arm. Prescribers will be instructed to contact the pharmacist via pager or phone call to discuss the patient details and the rationale for the desired antimicrobial. The pharmacist will then decide if the targeted antibiotic is approved or denied. If the pharmacist denies the use of the targeted antibiotic, the pharmacist will provide recommendations for alternative antibiotics for the specific clinical scenario. The pharmacist will document this interaction in the REDCap database.

All prescriptions for targeted antibiotics will be reviewed by the study pharmacist approximately 72 hours after initially written. The pharmacist will review and document the patient's current symptoms, pertinent clinical data, and the indication for the targeted antibiotic documented in the chart. Based on this review, the pharmacist will decide if the targeted antibiotic is necessary and/or if it needs to be modified. If a change is recommended, the pharmacist will then contact the prescriber to discuss the pharmacist's recommendations. The interaction will be documented in the REDCap database.