Make a ‘Formal’ Commitment to Antibiotic Stewardship

It’s an inescapable, irrefutable fact that too many clinicians are writing too many prescriptions for unwarranted antibiotics in the United States. We all know the consequences, too; around 23,000 Americans die every year from drug-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Urgent care certainly is not immune to the misguided practice, but as an industry we’re taking strong steps to reverse the trend. The most recent development: The Urgent Care Association, the Urgent Care Foundation, and the College of Urgent Care Medicine have developed a formal Antibiotic Stewardship Commitment letter to both help urgent care organizations keep antibiotic stewardship top-of-mind and to announce to the public that signatories are committed to protecting patient and public health through appropriate antibiotic prescribing. The effort is not limited to urgent care, however; any healthcare organizations, individuals working in healthcare, and even anyone in the general public who wants to officially state their commitment to antibiotic stewardship can sign. CityMD, GoHealth Urgent Care, and Premier FirstCare are among the urgent care organizations that have already made the pledge. JUCM Editorial Board members Tracey Q. Davidoff, MD, FCUCM and Joseph Toscano, MD are among the clinicians who have gotten on board with the effort, too. To learn more or to make the commitment yourself, check out the UCA’s Antibiotic Stewardship Commitment page. You can also read Improving Appropriate Antibiotic Use for Common Clinical Conditions in Urgent Care in the JUCM archive to see what steps you might be able to take today to reduce unwarranted antibiotic prescribing in your facility.