The content of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s Antimicrobial Stewardship in Australian Health Care book continues to grow, with the latest chapter dealing with AMS and community and residential aged care. Key elements include:
- Aged care services in Australia and infectious diseases and ageing
- Presentation of infections in older people
- Antimicrobial use and aged care services including specific areas of concern such as topical antimicrobial usage, asymptomatic bacteriuria and viral infections.
- Antimicrobial stewardship program strategies including program governance, the AMS team, policies and prescribing guidelines, monitoring and surveillance, audit and feedback, education and training and preventing and managing infections.
- Consideration of the barriers to implementation of AMS in the aged care setting in order to enhance effectiveness.
The chapter is available here https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications-and-resources/resource-library/antimicrobial-stewardship-australian-health-care