UCA Is Putting Urgent Care Out There to Support CDC’s Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts

The Urgent Care Association’s Urgent Care Foundation is using its first-ever grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop programs that further the cause of antibiotic stewardship. The funds will be put toward updating the UCA/College of Urgent Care Medicine Antibiotic Stewardship toolkit, creating a 4-year industry action plan, and continuing the partnership with the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University. This work is especially timely in the wake of a report the CDC released this July, revealing a surge in antibiotic-resistant infections and antibiotic use in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concern is that the situation could be worse in outpatient settings, given that they’re responsible for the bulk of antibiotic prescriptions written in the U.S. and that as much as 30% of outpatient antibiotic usage is ultimately found to be unnecessary.