Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Analysis of an Antibiotic Stewardship Program for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

Grigoryan L, Naik AD, Lichtenberger P, Graber CJ, Patel PK, Drekonja DM, Gauthier TP, Shukla B, Sales AE, Krein SL, Van JN, Dillon LM, Hysong SJ, Kramer JR, Walder A, Ramsey D, Trautner BW. Analysis of an Antibiotic Stewardship Program for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. JAMA Network Open. 2022 Jul 1; 5(7):e2222530.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

IMPORTANCE: Antibiotic stewardship for asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is an important quality improvement target. Understanding how to implement successful antibiotic stewardship interventions is limited. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement stewardship intervention on reducing unnecessary urine cultures and antibiotic use in patients with ASB. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This interrupted time series quality improvement study was performed at the acute inpatient medical and long-term care units of 4 intervention sites and 4 comparison sites in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system from October 1, 2017, through April 30, 2020. Participants included the clinicians who order or collect urine cultures and who order, dispense, or administer antibiotics. Clinical outcomes were measured in all patients in a study unit during the study period. Data were analyzed from July 6, 2020, to May 24, 2021. INTERVENTION: Case-based teaching on how to apply an evidence-based algorithm to distinguish urinary tract infection and ASB. The intervention was implemented through external facilitation by a centralized coordinating center, with a site champion at each intervention site serving as an internal facilitator. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Urine culture orders and days of antibiotic therapy (DOT) and length of antibiotic therapy in days (LOT) associated with urine cultures, standardized by 1000 bed-days, were obtained from the VA''s Corporate Data Warehouse. RESULTS: Of 11?299 patients included, 10?703 (94.7%) were men, with a mean (SD) age of 72.6 (11.8) years. The decrease in urine cultures before and after the intervention was not significant in intervention sites per segmented regression analysis (-0.04 [95% CI, -0.17 to 0.09]; P? = .56). However, difference-in-differences analysis comparing intervention with comparison sites found a significant reduction in the number of urine cultures ordered by 3.24 urine cultures per 1000 bed-days (P? = .003). In the segmented regression analyses, the relative percentage decrease of DOT in the postintervention period at the intervention sites was 21.7% (P? = .007), from 46.1 (95% CI, 28.8-63.4) to 37.0 (95% CI, 22.6-51.4) per 1000 bed-days. The relative percentage decrease of LOT in the postintervention period at the intervention sites was 21.0% (P? = .001), from 36.7 (95% CI, 23.2-50.2) to 29.6 (95% CI, 18.2-41.0) per 1000 bed-days. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The findings of this quality improvement study suggest that an individualized intervention for antibiotic stewardship for ASB was associated with a decrease in urine cultures and antibiotic use when implemented at multiple sites via external and internal facilitation. The electronic health record database-derived outcome measures and centralized facilitation approach are both suitable for dissemination.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.