133. A Review of Antimicrobial Formularies at Rural Hospitals: Stewardship Opportunities Abound

Abstract 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. 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)

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.