The Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) Program’s Antibiotic Resistance (AR) and Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) priorities are to detect, investigate, and respond to antibiotic-resistant threats and reduce the risk of infections for individuals receiving healthcare in Idaho. Promoting stewardship and appropriate antibiotic use can improve patient outcomes and slow resistance across the spectrum of care.
Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial stewardship is the effort to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. Improving antibiotic prescribing and use is critical to effectively treat infections, protect patients from harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use, and combat antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. This means the germs are not killed and continue to grow and multiply. Antibiotic resistance has the potential to affect people at any stage of life, as well as the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries. This makes it one of the world’s most urgent public health problems. If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, it becomes difficult to treat infections and control these public health threats.
- Provide technical assistance
- Provide facility containment, response, and prevention consultations
- Identify and contain antibiotic resistant organisms to prevent transmission and outbreaks
- Promote Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) to prevent or minimize antibiotic resistance
- Provide education and workforce training opportunities
Available Services
Free consultations are offered to healthcare facilities to identify program strengths and areas for improvement.
Free consultations are offered for multi-drug resistant organism (MDRO) prevention to identify program strengths and areas for improvement.
The Idaho HAI Program provides healthcare facilities:
- guidance on facility reporting and laboratory submission of nationally targeted multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs)
- information on detecting targeted MDROs in facility
- outbreak support
- MDRO containment consultations to identify interventions and determine new practices to stop/prevent spread
- colonization screening information