Pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship in intensive care units in East China: A multicenter prospective cohort study

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs, particularly pharmacist-driven programs, help reduce the unnecessary use of antimicrobial agents. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship on antimicrobial use, multidrug resistance, and patient outcomes in adult intensive care units in China. Method: We conducted a multicenter prospective cohort study with a sample of 577 patients. A total of 353 patients were included under a pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship program, whereas the remaining 224 patients served as controls. The primary outcome was all-cause hospital mortality. Results: The pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship program had a lower hospital mortality rate compared with the nonpharmacist program (19.3% vs 29.0%; P =.007). Furthermore, logistic regression analysis indicated that the pharmacist-driven program independently predicted hospital mortality (odds ratio, 0.57; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.91; P =.017) after adjustment. Meanwhile, this strategy had a lower rate of multidrug resistance (23.8% vs 31.7%; P =.037). Moreover, the strategy optimized antimicrobial use, such as having a shorter duration of empirical antimicrobial therapy (2.7 days; interquartile range [IQR], 1.7-4.6 vs 3.0; IQR, 1.9-6.2; P =.002) and accumulated duration of antimicrobial treatment (4.0; IQR, 2.0-7.0 vs 5.0; IQR, 3.0-9.5; P =.030). Conclusions: Pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship in an intensive care unit decreased patient mortality and the emergence of multidrug resistance, and optimized antimicrobial agent use. (C) 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.