The Role and Effect of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs Within the Hospital and How Rapid Diagnostics Can Make an Impact

Rapid diagnostics paired with an active antimicrobial stewardship (ASP) can have a positive impact on patients and hospitals because it can provide pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility results sooner allowing patients to be placed on appropriate antimicrobial faster than conventional methods. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing concern because antimicrobials are being overprescribed and there are few antimicrobials in development leaving physicians with minimal treatment options. ASPs are being formed within hospitals in order to help combat the growing antimicrobial resistance issue in order to reduce the overuse of antimicrobials. A total of six recent peer-reviewed articles were reviewed and compared to each other in order to determine if rapid diagnostics and ASP can have a positive impact on reducing antimicrobial usage, decreasing time to pathogen identification, and reducing time to appropriate therapy. Overall hospital outcomes were also reviewed to determine if they can help reduce length of stay, decrease hospital costs and lower mortality rates. Overall, the studies all showed a reduction in time to pathogen identification, time to antimicrobial susceptibility and optimal therapy. A majority of the studies showed a decrease in mortality, reduction in length of stay and decreased hospital costs. All of these studies showed that pairing rapid diagnostics with an active ASP can have a positive effect on patient care and improve hospital outcomes. Providing fast acting results to clinicians sooner can help patients receive appropriate therapy faster and potentially discharge them sooner helping to reduce the risk of developing further infections and decreasing the risk of antimicrobial resistance for the patient