Publications by authors named "R N WRENN"

Background: Rifampin therapy is indicated for the treatment of staphylococcal periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) in patients who have undergone debridement, antibiotics, and implant retention (DAIR) or one-stage revision as per the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guideline. Given the well-established effectiveness of rifampin as adjunctive therapy in staphylococcal PJI, it is crucial to evaluate its utilization in practice and identify factors that contribute to its underuse or incomplete administration, as these deviations may undermine treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.

Questions/purposes: Among patients who met clear indications for rifampin use having undergone DAIR or one-stage revision for staphylococcal PJI, (1) what proportion of patients did not receive it? (2) What proportion of patients started it but did not complete the planned course? (3) Where documented in the medical record, what were the common reasons for not using it or prematurely discontinuing it, and in what percentage of the patients' charts was no reason given? (4) What proportion of patients were taking a medication that put them at risk for a drug-drug interaction (DDI)?

Methods: Using an institutional database, patients who underwent DAIR or revision arthroplasty for PJI from January 2013 to April 2023 were identified (n = 935).

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Article Synopsis
  • - Automated identification of antibiotics for suspected urinary tract infections (UTIs) was implemented to see if it could speed up antimicrobial stewardship (AS) interventions in a hospital setting.
  • - A study comparing data before and after the introduction of a best practice alert (BPA) found that the median time to intervention decreased from 28 hours to 16 hours, with a significant increase in UTI-related interventions.
  • - The results suggest that while the BPA improved the efficiency of AS reviews, some cases still needed in-depth clinical review to address concerns like gram-negative bacteremia from urinary sources.
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Our interviews of inpatient clinicians (physicians, physician assistants) modeled after the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation Model of Behavior model revealed opportunity and motivation as important drivers for overdiagnosis and overprescribing for asymptomatic bacteriuria in older adults. Understanding these barriers is an important step toward implementing age-friendly stewardship interventions.

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Background: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) regimens typically prioritize ease of antimicrobial administration, tolerability, safety, and accessibility over using the narrowest-spectrum antimicrobial. In light of this, OPAT providers often utilize different techniques to promote antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in their OPAT programs. This study aims to characterize the AMS practices of OPAT programs across the United States that might meet The Joint Commission requirements for outpatient AMS metrics.

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Background: Infectious diseases (ID) physicians are increasingly faced with the challenge of caring for patients with terminal illnesses or incurable infections.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort of all patients with an ID consult within an academic health system from 1 January 2014 through 31 December 2023, including community, general, and transplant ID consult services.

Results: There were 60 820 inpatient ID consults (17 235 community, 29 999 general, and 13 586 transplant) involving 37 848 unique patients.

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