The AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) requests to revise and extend the currently approved AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use. The AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use aims to help facilities implement antibiotic stewardship programs and to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. The Safety Program has already been implemented in a pilot of integrated delivery systems and a national cohort of 400 acute care hospitals, and is currently being implemented in a national cohort of 500 long-term care facilities. The AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use was last approved by OMB on September 25, 2017 and will expire on September 30, 2020. The request for extension is to allow for completion of activities and data collection in the AHRQ Safety Program, which are scheduled to occur through March 30, 2021. The OMB control number for the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use is 0935-0238. All of the supporting documents for the current AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use can be downloaded from OMB’s website at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=201707-0935-003 The 2017 AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use OMB clearance included one response for the Structural Assessment and the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (MOSOPS) but did not include electronic health record (EHR) data or a second response for the Structural Assessment or MOSOPS. This was because our OMB clearance expiration date fell in the middle of the planned 4th cohort, set in ambulatory care settings, so the second Structural Assessment and MOSOPS were not within the timeframe, and EHR data collection would have been incomplete. In addition, we were not certain that the ambulatory care practices would be able to access EHR data, however based on the experience of the pilot cohort, we believe that many ambulatory practices can access this data, and that these practices are more likely to feasibly participate in the AHRQ Safety Program. The revision also updates the estimated annual burden accordingly, and includes changes to the data collection forms which will be used for the ambulatory care cohort based on lessons learned during the pilot cohort. Antibiotics can have serious adverse effects including Clostridium difficile infections (CDI), organ dysfunction, allergic reactions, and the development of antibiotic resistance on both a patient level and population level. This project will assist acute care, long-term care and ambulatory care settings across the United States in adopting and implementing antibiotic stewardship programs, which are coordinated efforts to improve the use of antibiotics by promoting the selection of the optimal antibiotic regimen, dose, route of administration, and duration of therapy. More specifically, this project has the following goals: • Identify best practices in the delivery of antibiotic stewardship in the acute care, long-term care and ambulatory care settings • Adapt the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) model to enhance antibiotic stewardship efforts in the health care settings • Assess the adoption of CUSP for antibiotic stewardship and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in the participating health care systems • Develop a bundle of technical and adaptive interventions and associated tools and educational materials designed to support enhanced antibiotic stewardship efforts • Provide technical assistance and training to health care organizations nationwide, using a phased approach, to implement effective antibiotic stewardship programs and interventions • Improve communication and teamwork between health care workers surrounding antibiotic decision-making • Improve communication between health care workers and patients/families surrounding antibiotic decision-making

The latest form for The AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use expires 2022-08-31 and can be found here.

Structural Assessments – Cohorts 1, 2 and 3 (baseline, post-intervention)

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Health - Health Care Services

Review document collections for all forms, instructions, and supporting documents - including paper/printable forms.