Antibiotics are key part of treating and preventing infections. However, use and over-use of antibiotics leads to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance, where antibiotics no longer work for patients as expected. One solution to this problem is developing and using new antibiotics, but discovering new antibiotics takes time. Another important response is to use antibiotics as wisely as possible.
Hospitals have developed teams consisting of multiple infection specialists, including doctors, pharmacists and nurses, who give advice to other healthcare professionals on antibiotics and other infection treatments patients receive. These teams are known as antimicrobial stewardship, or AMS, teams.
In Oxford there has been a gradual roll-out of weekly AMS team ward rounds since 2021. A careful database has been kept of the advice given and whether it was followed.
We plan to investigate if regular AMS ward rounds have reduced use of key antibiotics. We also want to summarise the types of advice given by AMS teams, and how this varies depending on the groups of patients being seen and the experts leading the AMS review. We also want to understand what affects where the AMS advice given is followed, and to compare outcomes for patients depending on if AMS advice is followed or not.