Commentary: Collaboration key to antibiotic stewardship in small, rural hospitals

In a commentary published in Academic Medicine, experts from the AHA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and Pew Charitable Trusts outline how academic medicine, medical education, public health agencies, hospital associations and health systems can help small community and critical access hospitals overcome resource and other challenges to implement successful antibiotic stewardship programs. “These stakeholders are ideally positioned to assist with stewardship efforts in small community and critical access hospitals and, in doing so, can improve patient safety while stemming the spread of resistant bacteria,” the authors write. AHA worked with the CDC and these other organizations to produce a 2017 guide to help small and critical access hospitals implement antibiotic stewardship programs. For more on antibiotic stewardship, see the AHA toolkit.