Harvesting the low-hanging fruit? Comparative assessment of intravenous to oral route antimicrobial conversion policy implementation

Policies that promote conversion of antibiotics from intravenous to oral route administration are considered low hanging fruit for hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs. We developed a simple metric based on digestive days of therapy divided by total days of therapy for targeted agents and a method for hospital comparisons. External comparisons may help identify opportunities for improving prospective implementation.

Automated summary

Policies promoting converting antibiotics from intravenous to oral administration are crucial for hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs, and developing metrics and comparison methods can help improve implementation.