Outpatient / discharge antimicrobial surveillance project
What is the Outpatient / discharge pilot project?
This project seeks to assess the feasibility, usefulness, and barriers to quantitative surveillance of antimicrobial usage in the hospital outpatient and discharge setting.
Why is this important for Outpatient/discharge patients?
Antimicrobials dispensed from hospitals in the outpatient and discharge settings are currently not captured by NAUSP. While the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) collects data for PBS prescriptions dispensed for antimicrobials, Australian hospitals are predicted to also dispense a significant volume of non-PBS prescriptions which remain unaccounted for. Additionally, there is currently no alternative way for hospitals to compare outpatient and discharge antimicrobial usage rates against other similar sites, which may be useful for guiding local antimicrobial stewardship interventions.
The pilot will be conducted in South Australian public and private hospitals and will investigate the potential for implementation at a national level.
Further information
For further information of the aged care pilot project, contact the project lead surveillance officer