National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 3.14.3 specifies that Monitoring of antimicrobial usage and resistance is undertaken in eligible health services.
One of the recommendations made by the Commission as part of implementing an AMS program is to develop a national standard for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. This, along with cumulative analysis and reporting of antibiograms, are managed and produced by clinical microbiology services[1].
Antimicrobial susceptibility tables, known as antibiograms, are used by clinicians to inform empirical antimicrobial choice. These should be available to clinicians and groups who are responsible for local antimicrobial therapy guidelines to inform local empirical therapy recommendations and formulary management.
In 2012 and 2013, the Commission developed a specification for hospital-level cumulative antibiograms for local surveillance of antimicrobial resistance. Specification of both the clinical and technical elements of cumulative antibiograms will support antimicrobial prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in general. In addition, specification of the cumulative antibiogram can eventually support national surveillance, mapping and monitoring of AMR.
In December 2012 the Hospital-Level Cumulative Antibiogram Expert Roundtable was convened by the Commission.
In May 2013 a second expert roundtable was convened by the Commission to review the draft Hospital-Level Cumulative Antibiogram.
The antibiogram specification was presented and recommended by the Commission Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Advisory Committee on 28 August 2013, and endorsed by the Inter Jurisdictional Committee in October 2013.
Download the Specification for Hospital Cumulative Antibiograms.
[1] Duguid M and Cruickshank M (eds) (2010). Antimicrobial stewardship in Australian hospitals, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, Chapter 7 P80 – 91.