The Joint Commission recommends that an institution’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program should have seven main components. These components are referred to as “Core Elements of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program” and are discussed in detail by the CDC. In addition to the originally published Hospital Core Elements, the CDC has also released core elements specifically geared toward small and critical access hospitals.
The CDC has also created recommendations on the formation of an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship program in the long-term care setting. These recommendations can be found in “The Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship for Nursing Homes.”
In 2016 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released The Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship as a framework for antimicrobial stewardship in the outpatient setting. Although the Core Elements are intended for a wide variety of intended audiences, community pharmacies and ambulatory care clinics are specifically listed as focal stewardship practice sites.
In February 2016, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in partnership with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) published updated guidelines on implementing an inpatient Antibiotic Stewardship Program. When used in conjunction with the CDC Core Elements of a Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Program, these guidelines provide specific details on what to include in your institution’s ASP, as well as, providing details on how to implement your interventions.
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has published a “Practical Playbook” on antimicrobial stewardship. This playbook provides extensive detail on the CDC Core Elements of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, as well as, examples on how to implement each core element.
The Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) and Making a Difference in Infectious Diseases (MAD-ID) have created certificate programs focusing on the pharmacist’s role in the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents. This program seeks to create a strong knowledgebase in infectious diseases in order to successfully implement an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.