Antipseudomonal Versus Narrow-Spectrum Agents for the Treatment of Community-Onset Intra-abdominal Infections.

Background: Antipseudomonal antibiotics are often used to treat community-acquired intra-abdominal infections (CA-IAIs) despite common causative pathogens being susceptible to more narrow-spectrum agents. The purpose of this study was to compare treatment-associated complications in adult patients treated for CA-IAI with antipseudomonal versus narrow-spectrum regimens.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients 18 years admitted for CA-IAI treated with antibiotics.

Comparison of procalcitonin testing to a targeted audit-and-feedback strategy on prescribed durations of therapy for community-acquired pneumonia.

The procalcitonin (PCT) assay is FDA-approved to help guide antimicrobial treatment, however, conflicting data exist regarding its impact on durations of therapy. The purpose of this study was to compare the impact of PCT to a targeted audit-and-feedback (TAF) strategy on antibiotic durations of therapy for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). A retrospective cohort study was conducted at two community teaching hospitals, one implementing PCT with routine audit-and-feedback and one implementing TAF recommending 5 days of therapy for uncomplicated CAP.

Correction to: Expanding Antimicrobial Stewardship to Urgent Care Centers Through a Pharmacist-Led Culture Follow-up Program.

In the original publication, the data labels have been inverted in Figure 1. The corrected figure is given here.

Expanding Antimicrobial Stewardship to Urgent Care Centers Through a Pharmacist-Led Culture Follow-up Program.

Introduction: Urgent care centers represent a high-volume outpatient setting where antibiotics are prescribed frequently but resources for antimicrobial stewardship may be scarce. In 2015, our pharmacist-led Emergency Department (ED) culture follow-up program was expanded to include two urgent care (UC) sites within the same health system. The UC program is conducted by ED and infectious diseases clinical pharmacists as well as PGY1 pharmacy residents using a collaborative practice agreement (CPA).