Vol.64 No.3 May 2016
Contribution of ward pharmacists to appropriate antimicrobial use in the hematology ward
Department of Pharmacy, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, 5-9-22 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
Appropriate antimicrobial use is an important issue considering measures against nosocomial infections, and is also important in terms of the prevention of the emergence of resistant strains. Therefore, we quantified the degree of antimicrobial use in the hematology ward, where large amounts of antimicrobial agents are used, on the basis of antimicrobial use density (AUD) and compared it with the prescription of antimicrobials in all departments of the hospital, in order to reveal the current situation of antimicrobial use through antibiograms generated from drug sensitivity of bacteria detected in our hospital. In addition, changes in antimicrobial use after intervention by ward pharmacists were also investigated.
The AUD in the hematology ward was higher than that in all departments, but decreased from 623.2 to 354.2 after the intervention by ward pharmacists. The AUD analyzed for each drug class indicated greater use of amounts of fourth-generation cephems and carbapenems. However, after assignment of the ward pharmacists, the amount of carbapenem use significantly decreased.
The antibiograms revealed that the resistance rates were higher in the hematology ward than those in all departments. Regarding the drug sensitivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in particular, the resistance rates to imipenem (IPM) and meropenem (MEPM) were higher (34% and 31%, respectively) in the hematology ward than those in all departments (11% and 7%, respectively). These finding suggest that drugs need to be selected carefully based on antibiograms.
Key word
antimicrobial use density, antibiogram, hematology, clinical pharmacist
Received
November 24, 2015
Accepted
January 14, 2016
Jpn. J. Chemother. 64 (3): 524-529, 2016
