The Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) is participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eighth annual Get Smart About Antibiotics Week (Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22) in order to raise awareness about the importance of appropriate antibiotic use across all healthcare settings.
“When we compare the way healthcare providers treat patients against what research tells us is the best practice, we routinely find that providers give antibiotics more often than is actually needed,” said Michael Attilio, MD, medical director for the MVHS Medical Group. “Some factors contributing to the over-prescription of antibiotics are providers not being aware of the most up-to-date research that changes the treatment for certain diseases as well as pressure from patients to receive antibiotics. It's likely that not enough is done to help both healthcare providers and patients understand how big of a problem the over-prescribing of antibiotics can be, which can create a false sense of security and make the problem seem like it's not a big deal.”
Antibiotic resistance, which occurs when bacteria change in a way that reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics, is among the most pressing public health threats. The use of antibiotics is the single most important factor contributing to antibiotic resistance and up to one-third to one-half of antibiotic use in humans is either unnecessary or inappropriate. Taking antibiotics when they are not needed creates additional health risks by increasing the chances a patient will experience a bad drug reaction and also leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which affects everyone in the community.
“In addition to our efforts, it’s extremely important for the public to be educated on the safe and appropriate use of antibiotics. Informed healthcare consumers can make better decisions for their own health, and can help their healthcare providers make better decisions on their behalf.”
Get Smart About Antibiotics Week 2015 marks an important year, during which the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria laid out key actions for implementing the national strategy. Furthermore, a White House forum was held in June 2015 to discuss the issue of antibiotic stewardship, and heralded widespread and coordinated commitments to combating antibiotic resistance among a wide variety of stakeholders.
“Everyone should be concerned about this issue because antibiotic resistance anywhere is antibiotic resistance everywhere,” says Dr. Lauri Hicks, director for CDC’s Office of Antibiotic Stewardship. “In order to minimize the impact of antibiotic resistance, it is important that everyone only takes antibiotics prescribed for themselves, implement proper hand hygiene in their everyday routine, receives recommended vaccinations and discusses their concerns about antibiotic resistance with their healthcare provider.”
“The MVHS Medical Group is working to help avoid the over-prescribing of antibiotics by focusing on provider education and quality improvement projects,” said Dr. Attilio. “Information regarding the CDC's Get Smart About Antibiotics Week campaign will be shared with our physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and physician presentations from the New York State Department of Health and MVHS will be offered as continuing education to our providers. In addition, antibiotic stewardship will be part of the Medical Group's quality goals for 2016, during which the rates of antibiotic over-prescribing for certain diseases will be measured and performance improvement plans for our providers will be implemented.
For additional information about Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, please visit www.cdc.gov/getsmart.
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