Antimicrobial Stewardship and Great Basin

Antimicrobial stewardship programs in hospitals seek to optimize antibiotics use to improve patient care, reduce hospital expenses and slow the spread of antibiotic resistance. With antibiotic resistance on the rise globally and few new drugs in development, antimicrobial stewardship programs are more important than ever in ensuring the continued efficacy of the available antimicrobials¹.

What is an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program?

Antimicrobial stewardship programs in hospitals seek to optimize the use of antibiotics to improve patient care, reduce hospital expenses and slow the spread of antibiotic resistance. With antibiotic resistance on the rise globally and few new drugs in development, antimicrobial stewardship programs are more important than ever in ensuring the continued efficacy of the available antimicrobials¹.

What solutions can hospitals employ to support Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs?

The CDC estimates that there are 47 million unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics written each year in the U.S., and that over 10 million Americans will die from untreatable “superbugs” by 2050.  As a result, a key facet of antimicrobial stewardship programs is the adoption of rapid diagnostic testing – with susceptibility results – that allows clinicians to select more appropriate and focused therapy. Additionally,  rapid diagnostic testing offers significant cost benefits to hospitals and shorter stays for patients. One study using found that associated patient costs from rapid intervention went from $45,709 to $26,162, while mean length of stay went from ~11 days to ~9 days². 

What is the benefit of adopting Great Basin’s Staph ID/R Blood Culture panel as part of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program?

Great Basin’s Staph ID/R Blood Culture Panel is the only rapid blood culture assay currently on the market that specifically distinguishes coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) – an organism that can signal a positive blood culture because of external contamination and not an infection in the patient’s bloodstream – from MRSA/MSSA. This identification enables hospitals to correctly administer antibiotics when there is a true infection, versus administering treatment (e.g., Vancomycin) empirically. Rapid blood culture testing has been shown to expedite time to optimal therapy leading to reduced antibiotic resistance, reduced costs, and improved patient outcomes. Great Basin’s Staph ID/R Blood Culture Panel provides results in in under two hours, as opposed to days using only traditional methods, which aids in proper treatment protocols for patients.

What are the key advantages of Great Basin’s Staph ID/Resistance Blood Culture Panel?

  • Results in under two hours means clinicians have answers they need to treat with appropriate therapy
  • Detects S. aureus (MRSA and MSSA) and the mecA gene (methicillin resistance), which will inform the accurate selection of antibiotic therapy for the patient
  • Detects CoNS contaminants, which clears the patient for step-down therapy (off Vancomycin) and discharge
  • Identifies S. lugdunensis, a CoNS that is always considered a true pathogen requiring antibiotic therapy
  • One-step, true sample-to-result workflow – simply pipette sample into the test cartridge, insert panel into the analyzer and press “start” – which means our system can be run 24/7 in labs of any size to offer Standard of Care for their patients
  • Competitive reagent cost

¹ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1265911/

² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23216247

Learn more about how Great Basin’s sample-to-result system can help your hospital or lab make fast and accurate molecular diagnostics possible.

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