Antimicrobial stewardship for UTI in US nursing homes

Groups related to this event

Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research

Event date

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

Speaker

Associate Professor Heidi Wald, Visiting Associate Professor, AIHI

Abstract

Overdiagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) and inappropriate treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria are common and may contribute to antibiotic resistance in nursing homes (NH). Thus, increasing accuracy in UTI diagnosis and decreasing incorrect ASB treatment is an important antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) strategy in this setting. However, NHs face many challenges to AMS including lack of resources and a complex resident population.  Further, NHs have distinct workflows, such as an enhanced role for nurses in infection recognition and asynchronous communication between team members, which may influence the effectiveness of stewardship approaches validated in other settings.

In this presentation, Dr Wald will provide a brief overview of US Nursing homes and the current context for antimicrobial stewardship. She will provide a rationale for an approach to UTI-specific stewardship interventions, review the development of a mobile clinical decision support system for use by frontline staff called UTIDecide, and discuss next steps for improving antibiotic use for UTI in NHs.

Speaker profile

Dr. Wald is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Health Care Policy Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where she serves as Vice Chair for Quality in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Wald’s research focuses on patient safety for the older adult population in hospital and nursing home settings. She was a 2009 recipient of a Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging from the National Institutes of Health, and the principal investigator of a multisite study on the prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Additionally, Dr. Wald was a 2009 Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington DC. Current projects include understanding the impact of hospital acquired condition prevention strategies, decision support for improving diagnosis and treatment of UTI, and NH resident engagement in research. Her work is funded by AHRQ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Wald is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed fellowship in Geriatric Medicine, a NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship, and an MSPH at the University of Colorado Denver.

Seminar details

Date: Tuesday 1st November 2016

Time: 12pm - 1pm

Venue: Seminar room, Level 1, 75 Talavera Road, Macquarie University

Chair: Professor Johanna Westbrook

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