132. Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratios to Guide Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: a Single Center Experience

Abstract Background Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is particularly challenging in the neonatal population. Both under- and overuse can negatively impact outcomes. There are limited reports of strategies to improve AMS in the neonatal population. Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratios (SAARs) are novel metrics of antimicrobial use, recently introduced for neonatal populations by the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). We describe our experience using SAARs to guide AMS in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods This was a retrospective study conducted from January 2020 to April 2021. A team consisting of AMS and NICU department staff identified and implemented AMS strategies. Based on a review of NICU SAAR data, a goal was set to reduce third generation cephalosporin use by encouraging aminoglycoside use when appropriate. The pre-implementation period was January 2020 to May 2020 and the post-implementation period was July 2020 to April 2021. Antibiotic use was measured as SAARs and compared between study periods. The primary outcome was the neonatal SAAR for third generation cephalosporins. Secondary outcomes included SAARs for aminoglycosides and all neonatal antibacterial agents. SAARs were compared using the NHSN Statistics Calculator. Results For third generation cephalosporins, there were 385 observed antimicrobial days (OAD) and 115 expected antimicrobial days (EAD) in the pre-implementation period compared to 597 OAD and 228 EAD in the post implementation period. This resulted in a SAAR of 3.34 and 2.62, respectively; a reduction of 22% (p < 0.001). For aminoglycosides, there were 713 OAD and 584 EAD compared to 1617 OAD and 1155 EAD. This resulted in a SAAR of 1.22 and 1.4; an increase of 15% (p = 0.002). For all neonatal antibacterial agents, there were 2716 OAD and 1739 EAD compared to 5321 OAD and 3438 EAD. This resulted in a SAAR of 1.56 and 1.55; indicating no change in use (p = 0.70). See Table 1 for results. Table 1. Antibiotic Use Conclusion While this initiative resulted in decreased use of third generation cephalosporins, this was not associated with a decrease in antibiotic use overall. Use of SAARs in the NICU may be helpful in both identifying opportunities to improve antibiotic use and monitoring antibiotic use over time. Disclosures Steven Smoke, PharmD, Karius (Advisor or Review Panel member) Shionogi (Scientific Research Study Investigator, Advisor or Review Panel member)


Figure 1. Post Implementation Periods
Conclusion. Our findings suggest that NHs assigned to usual implementation regressed in their diagnosis and treatment of UTIs during the COVID-19 pandemic while those receiving external facilitation and peer comparison reports were more resilient to the effects of COVID-19.
Disclosures. All Authors: No reported disclosures Background. The impact of antimicrobial stewardship programs has been well observed in institutional settings; however, patients complete over one-third of their antibiotic course after discharge. This creates a gap in stewardship efforts at transitions of care. We studied whether pharmacist review of antibiotic prescriptions at discharge would improve outpatient antibiotic prescribing.

A Pharmacist Led Antimicrobial Stewardship Pilot at Discharge Improves Outpatient Antibiotic Utilization
Methods. This was a pilot project of patients in medicine wards of an academic medical center who were discharged on oral antibiotics between February and May 2021. Patients who were pregnant, <18 YO, had COVID-19, or leaving against medical advice were excluded from evaluation. For the pilot, a verification queue was created in the electronic health record (EHR) system where orders for discharge antibiotics were reviewed by investigator pharmacists before prescriptions were electronically sent to outpatient pharmacies. During the pilot, prescriptions were reviewed Monday-Friday afternoons from 12pm-4pm. Data was collected on incidence, type, and acceptance rate of pharmacist interventions, and a cost savings analysis was conducted with values calculated by the EHR system.
Results. There were 149 patients included with oral antibiotic prescriptions reviewed during the time frame. Of those patients, 48 (32.2%) had at least one prescription that was intervened on by a pharmacist. A total of 55 interventions were made with an acceptance rate of 76%. The median time for pharmacist review was 10 minutes (IQR 5-15). Patients who received infectious diseases (ID) consultation during admission required less intervention than patients without expert consultation but did not reach significance (8/35 and 47/114 respectively, p=0.07). The total cost savings associated with all interventions was $20,743.00.

Conclusion.
Direct pharmacist review and intervention at discharge improved the prescribing of oral antibiotics within our institution during this pilot. Considering that this was conducted part-time in a subset of hospitalized patients during a limited time period, significant cost savings are possible with greater implementation.
Disclosures There are limited reports of strategies to improve AMS in the neonatal population. Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratios (SAARs) are novel metrics of antimicrobial use, recently introduced for neonatal populations by the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). We describe our experience using SAARs to guide AMS in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Methods. This was a retrospective study conducted from January 2020 to April 2021. A team consisting of AMS and NICU department staff identified and implemented AMS strategies. Based on a review of NICU SAAR data, a goal was set to reduce third generation cephalosporin use by encouraging aminoglycoside use when appropriate. The pre-implementation period was January 2020 to May 2020 and the post-implementation period was July 2020 to April 2021. Antibiotic use was measured as SAARs and compared between study periods. The primary outcome was the neonatal SAAR for third generation cephalosporins. Secondary outcomes included SAARs for aminoglycosides and all neonatal antibacterial agents. SAARs were compared using the NHSN Statistics Calculator.
Results. For third generation cephalosporins, there were 385 observed antimicrobial days (OAD) and 115 expected antimicrobial days (EAD) in the pre-implementation period compared to 597 OAD and 228 EAD in the post implementation period. This resulted in a SAAR of 3.34 and 2.62, respectively; a reduction of 22% (p < 0.001). For aminoglycosides, there were 713 OAD and 584 EAD compared to 1617 OAD and 1155 EAD. This resulted in a SAAR of 1.22 and 1.4; an increase of 15% (p = 0.002). For all neonatal antibacterial agents, there were 2716 OAD and 1739 EAD compared to 5321 OAD and 3438 EAD. This resulted in a SAAR of 1.56 and 1.55; indicating no change in use (p = 0.70). See Table 1 for results.  Background. Management of a hospital's antimicrobial formulary is an important aspect of antimicrobial stewardship and cost containment strategies. Ensuring that essential medications for clinical care are available and excluding therapeutic duplicates and unnecessary antimicrobials is time and resource intensive. Comparisons of antimicrobial formularies across multiple rural hospitals have not been evaluated in the literature. We hypothesized that a comprehensive formulary evaluation would reveal important opportunities for antimicrobial stewardship efforts and could help smaller hospitals optimize available medications.

A Review of Antimicrobial Formularies at Rural Hospitals: Stewardship Opportunities Abound
Methods. The University of Washington Tele-Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (UW-TASP) is comprised of 68 hospitals of varying sizes, most of which are rural and critical access, in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah. We surveyed UW-TASP participating hospitals and other networked rural hospitals in multiple Western states using REDCap, a HIPAA-compliant, electronic data management program. Respondents reported which antimicrobials are on their hospital formulary as well as basic information about hospital size and inpatient units. Data were reviewed by a panel of infectious diseases trained physicians and pharmacists at UW-TASP.
Results. Surveys from 49 hospitals were received; two were excluded from the data analysis (Table 1) -one submission was incomplete, and one was a large inpatient psychiatric hospital. Select antimicrobials and proportion of hospitals carrying these agents is shown in Table 2. Several antimicrobials are on the formulary at all hospitals, regardless of size. In some critical access hospitals (< 25 beds), empiric first-line bacterial meningitis and viral encephalitis coverage (Table 3) was lacking. Six hospitals (12.7%) lacked ampicillin for Listeria coverage and only one had a suitable alternative agent (meropenem). Seven hospitals (14.9%) lacked intravenous acyclovir, although three had oral valacyclovir. Formulary inclusion of agents for multi-drug resistant organisms was rare.

Conclusion.
In critical access hospitals in the Western USA, lack of essential empiric antimicrobials may be more of a concern than inclusion of agents with unnecessarily broad spectra.
Disclosures. Chloe Bryson-Cahn, MD, Alaska Airlines (Other Financial or Material Support, Co-Medical Director, position is through the University of Washington) Background. Antibiotic prescribing for pyogenic liver abscess(es) (PLA) is highly variable with literature primarily aimed at assessing surgical intervention with a scarcity of data for antibiotic selection and duration of therapy. Given the lack of data, there is no clear consensus for treatment options or length of treatment. Our Antimicrobial Support Network (ASN) in collaboration with the hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) team created a treatment and management algorithm to guide duration of therapy and antibiotic selection.