IDSA Announces Recipients of Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence Designation

The Infectious Diseases Society of America has announced the recipients of its Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence designation.

The eight institutions awarded the designation “have created stewardship programs led by infectious diseases-trained physicians and pharmacists that advance science in antimicrobial resistance. The institutions also have achieved standards aligned with evidence-based national guidelines, such as the IDSA-Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America guidelines and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Core Elements. A total of 187 programs nationwide have received the designation since the program’s launch in 2017.”

In a recently published fact sheet, CDC said that “the number of reported clinical cases of C. auris increased nearly five-fold from 2019 to 2022. Additionally, CDC shows that six bacterial antimicrobial-resistant hospital-onset infections increased by a combined 20% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period, peaking in 2021 and remaining above pre-pandemic levels in 2022.”

The Centers of Excellence program place emphasis on “an institution’s ability to implement stewardship protocols by integrating best practices to slow the emergence of resistance, optimize the treatment of infections, reduce adverse events associated with antibiotic use and to address other challenging areas related to antimicrobial stewardship.”