Welcome to Northwestern Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship 

NM COVID-19 Resources

Please note: these resources are being made available based on limited evidence and will continue to be updated daily or weekly, as appropriate. If using these resources, please understand this information will continue to change as the COVID-19 situation evolves in Chicago and across the United States.
Last updated: 4/1/2020

Northwestern Medicine Inpatient Treatment Options

NM COVID-19 Clinical Pathway - NMH ONLY
NM COVID-19 Clinical Pathway - Non-NMH Sites
NM ASP Evidence Review for COVID-19 Inpatient Treatment Options
NMH COVID-19 Clinical Trials

Other COVID-19 Resources

Compassionate Use Remdesivir

IPhA Dispensing Guidance for COVID-19 Therapies

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Center of Excellence: Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Our Mission

To ensure that our patients receive the safest and most effective antimicrobial therapy for their infection while preserving and protecting the effectiveness of these endangered resources for future patients.

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Pharmacy Residency and Fellowship Program Highlight

The Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists highlighted the joint Midwestern University & Northwestern Memorial Hospital pharmacy residency and fellowship programs in the January 2020 newsletter.

To learn more and access the newsletter, follow this link.

PGY-2 ID Pharmacy Residency Program Director: Sheila Wang
PGY-2/3 ID Pharmacy Fellowship Program Director: Marc Scheetz

Information about the programs can also be found on our Residency and Fellowship Page.

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Choosing Wisely: Antibiotics

Dr. Jeffrey A Linder

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Clinician Antimicrobial Stewardship
​Training Resources

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Vancomycin Clinical Update

Initiative: Convert from trough level to AUC* monitoring for all patients receiving intravenous vancomycin at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Goal: To reduce rates of nephrotoxicity associated with vancomycin use.

Rationale:

• Vancomycin trough levels are not strongly correlated with antibiotic efficacy.
• Monitoring AUC improves patient safety by reducing nephrotoxicity risks in patients receiving intravenous vancomycin.
• Upcoming IDSA vancomycin dosing guidelines anticipated to recommend monitoring by AUC methodology.

Procedure: 

• Trough levels will continue to be obtained as the NMH standard of care.
• Pharmacists will convert the trough levels to an AUC estimate using single level population pharmacokinetics and document in a progress note.
• AUC target range = 350-600 mg*h/L

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Resources:

• User Guide for Vancomycin AUC Calculator
• ​Online AUC Calculator (see above guide for tutorial)
• For questions or support please page the NMH Antimicrobial Stewardship Team at 55955.

*AUC - area under the concentration-time curve.

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CDC Global Antimicrobial Resistance Challenge

"Northwestern Medicine, an integrated academic health system in the Chicago area with 4,000 physicians and 30,000 employees caring for over 1.1 million patients, is committed to improving antibiotic use to ensure that these important medications remain effective treatment options. The Antimicrobial Stewardship Quality Committee commits to using local and CDC data to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use across their system. They also commit to increased use of penicillin allergy testing to remove misdiagnoses and decrease the use of broader-spectrum antibiotics. Utilizing both of these interventions will be aimed at reducing overly broad spectrum antibiotic use and emphasize their strong commitment to better patient care and combating antibiotic resistance."

See "Northwestern Medicine" on the CDC AMR Challenge Website

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New! - 2019 Antibiograms

Our NM system antimicrobial stewardship teams are proud to share the updated 2019 antibiograms.  With new Epic functionality, we are able to produce site and source specific antibiograms for many of our patient care locations.

See the updated antibiograms here:

• Northwestern Memorial Hospital
• NM Lake Forest Hospital
• NM Huntley and Woodstock Hospitals
• NM McHenry Hospital
• NM Kishwaukee Hospital
• NM Delnor Hospital
• NM Central DuPage Hospital
• NM Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital

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Culture Decision Algorithms

Urine Cultures - Foley Catheter
Blood Cultures - Central Venous Devices

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​Safety Update: Fluoroquinolones

• FDA Warning For Fluoroquinolone-Associated Aortic Dissections/Ruptures​​
• 10 Ways to Reduce Fluoroquinolone Prescribing in the Hospital
• 10 Ways to Reduce Fluoroquinolone Prescribing in Ambulatory Care

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NMH Allergy Toolkit

Risk Assessment and Clinical Pathway
Graded Challenge Guidance Document
Provider Education: Penicillin Allergy
Cross Reactivity Chart: Beta-lactams

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Follow us on Twitter!
@NM_IDSteward

Tweets by NM_IDSteward

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