Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T14:39:06.757Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Excessive Use of Vancomycin: A Successful Intervention Strategy at an Academic Medical Center

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Carol Dukes Hamilton*
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Duke University Medical Center and Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Richard Drew
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Duke University Medical Center and Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina Department of Pharmacy, Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
Stephen W. Janning
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Joanne Kure Latour
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Shelly Hayward
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
*
Box 3306, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710

Abstract

The project goal was to decrease excessive vancomycin use. Interventions included an educational chart note the first day of therapy, followed by pharmacists discussing the need for continued therapy with patients' physicians. Empirical vancomycin use improved from 20% to 90% compliance with guidelines within 6 months of the intervention

Type
Concise Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Morris, JG Jr, Shay, DK, Hebden, JN, McCarter, RJ Jr, Perdue, BE, Jarvis, W, et al. Enterococci resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents, including vancomycin: establishment of endemicity in a university medical center. Ann Intern Med 1995;123:250259.Google Scholar
2.Vincent, JL, Bihari, DJ, Suter, PM, Bruining, HA, White, J, Nicolas-Chanoin, MH, et al. The prevalence of nosocomial infection in intensive care units in Europe: results of the European prevalence of infection in intensive care (EPIC) study. EPIC International Advisory Committee. JAMA 1995;274:639644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Moreno, F, Crisp, C, Jorgensen, JH, Patterson, JE. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a community organism. Clin Infect Dis 1995;21:13081312.Google Scholar
4.Ena, J, Dick, RW, Jones, RN, Wenzel, RP. The epidemiology of intravenous vancomycin usage in a university hospital: a 10 year study. JAMA 1993;269:598602.Google Scholar
5.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nosocomial enterococci resistant to vancomycin—United States, 1989-1993. MMWR 1993;42:597599.Google Scholar
6.Weinstein, JW, Roe, M, Towns, M, Sanders, L, Thorpe, JJ, Corey, GR, et al. Resistant enterococci: a prospective study of prevalence, incidence, and factors associated with colonization in a university hospital. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1996;17:3641.Google Scholar
7.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recommendations for preventing the spread of vancomycin resistance: recommendations of the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). MMWR 1995;44(RR-12):113.Google Scholar