February 4, 2021
In January, the UNC Medical Center’s Anti-infectives Sub-committee approved a new Clostridioides difficile, or C. difficile, infection guideline to provide evidence-based best practices for diagnosis and management of the disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that CDI sickens an estimated 462,000 people in the US, leading to some 15,000 deaths each …
January 4, 2021
by Lindsay Daniels, PharmD, MPH Antibiotics are life-saving drugs. Without them, modern advances in medicine would not be possible. Reducing unnecessary antibiotic exposure is essential to preserving the efficacy of these drugs for the future. Our goal in stewardship is to optimize therapy for patients who require antibiotics and avoid using antibiotics where they will …
December 10, 2020
by Bill Wilson, PharmD Last year, a multidisciplinary group (surgery, anesthesiology, perioperative nursing, infectious diseases, and pharmacy) came together to optimize the management and delivery of perioperative antibiotics for pediatric patients. This work group identified gaps in the overall delivery process that they are addressing to bring about positive change for patients. One gap identified …
December 6, 2020
CASP team member Emily Ciccone, MD, MHS won ASTMH award for her project “Potential use of rapid, point-of-care diagnostics to reduce antibiotic prescription rates among pediatric patients presenting with respiratory illness in southwestern Uganda.”
November 12, 2020
The Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program’s 2020 Newsletter features updates on its efforts, including: Expert advice from CASP’s lead pharmacist Lindsay Daniels in Clinicians’ Corner Pediatric stewardship news from UNC Children’s Hospital’s Zach Willis and Bill Wilson How collaboration with Infection Prevention is expected to help keep C. difficile infection rates low Progress in scaling up …
October 5, 2020
As a pediatric resident, Zachary Willis, MD, MPH developed an early interest in antimicrobial stewardship. In his role as director for pediatric antimicrobial stewardship with UNC Medical Center’s Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP), he was compelled to find ways to optimize antimicrobial use at UNC Children’s Hospital and across the Medical Center. To that end, …
September 30, 2020
An innovative outpatient program de-labels penicillin allergy through penicillin allergy assessments.
September 10, 2020
By Michael Swartwood UNC Medical Center’s OPAT (Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy) Program is a multidisciplinary team designed to provide a structured best practice-focused way for patients to receive IV antimicrobials outside of the acute care setting. OPAT allows patients to receive IV antimicrobials outside of the hospital, most commonly while at home. This increases patient …
August 24, 2020
Inpatient rates of Clostridioides difficile (or C. difficile), a common healthcare-associated infection, reached an all-time low at UNC Hospitals earlier this year as COVID-19 moved into North Carolina. In April, only two C. difficile infections (CDI) were reported, and the fiscal year ending June 30 showed a 16% reduction compared to the 2018 baseline. The …
July 30, 2020
By Sarah Krueger, WRAL Durham reporter Chapel Hill, N.C. — From Florida to California, some hospitals report running out of remdesivir, the drug that has shown promise in fighting COVID-19 in the most seriously ill patients. But officials at several area hospitals said Thursday that they have enough of the drug to meet demand.
July 8, 2020
by Judith Retana via CBS17.com Health professionals across the country are experiencing shortages of supplies needed for COVID-19 tests, and it’s leading to a slow down of test results, according to Dr. Melissa Miller. She is the director of the Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Microbiology Laboratories at UNC Health. In a media briefing Wednesday, Miller …
June 25, 2020
Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP) is carrying out intensive stewardship in the realm of COVID-19. The work is a natural extension of its mission to improve the use of antimicrobials (which include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics). In addition to CASP’s daily stewardship to ensure patients receive antimicrobials only when needed, with the right drug, right …