Northwestern Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship

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: 10/8/2020

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
NM COVID-19 Clinical Trials

Other COVID-19 Resources

Colchicine Dosing and Interactions Guide - Pharmacists Letter

Compassionate Use Remdesivir

Convalescent Plasma EUA Fact Sheet for Health Care Providers

Hydroxychloroquine Position Statement

Hydroxychloroquine Literature Summary

IPhA Dispensing Guidance for COVID-19 Therapies

Remdesivir FDA EUA Fact Sheet for Parents-Caregivers

Remdesivir FDA Fact Sheet Health Care Providers

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.

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.

Choosing Wisely: Antibiotics

Dr. Jeffrey A Linder

Clinician Antimicrobial Stewardship
Training Resources

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

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.

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

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: