Stewardship programs
Stewardship programs ensure the best possible use of medications across the health service and into the community by monitoring their use, coordinating interventions and working with patients and practitioners.
Antimicrobial Stewardship
At Alfred Health we have built on the success of antimicrobial stewardship to extend this quality improvement approach to other key therapeutic areas.
The Alfred Health antimicrobial stewardship program is a collaborative approach between the Pharmacy Department and the Infectious Diseases Unit to ensure that patients of the Alfred, Caulfield and Sandringham hospitals are receiving optimal antimicrobial therapy. We aim to ensure patients with infections are treated with the correct antimicrobial agent, to reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance (‘super bugs’) and to minimise any potential side effects to patients. Education and training is available to undergraduates, intern pharmacists, and clinical pharmacy fellows.
All clinical pharmacists within Alfred Health are trained to provide a pharmacist-led therapeutic drug monitoring service for inpatients prescribed vancomycin and aminoglycosides.
Analgesic Stewardship
The Analgesic Stewardship program is an innovative and exciting initiative to promote optimal use of analgesics across Alfred Health. Development of the Analgesic Stewardship program is led by Pharmacy with collaborative input from the members of the Analgesic Stewardship Committee, consisting of health professionals across key areas such as the Acute Pain Service, Trauma, Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit and Rehabilitation services.
The specific aims of analgesic stewardship are to improve patient outcomes, reduce analgesic related harm and ensure cost-effective use of analgesics to provide optimal pain management.
Anticoagulation Stewardship
The Alfred Health Anticoagulation Stewardship program is a collaborative approach between the Pharmacy Department and the Haemostasis/Thrombosis Unit to ensure that patients of the Alfred, Caulfield and Sandringham hospitals are receiving safe and optimal anticoagulant (‘blood-thinning’) therapy. This encompasses inpatient, peri-operative and ambulatory settings.
We aim to ensure that patients requiring anticoagulation are managed appropriately to reduce anticoagulant-related adverse events and prevent hospital complications due to potential over- or under-utilisation of these agents.
The Anticoagulation Stewardship program is a new service and is in the process of developing interventional strategies for improving patient outcomes related to appropriate anticoagulant use. This includes reviewing current institutional practice for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis. Opportunities exist for education provision to undergraduates, intern pharmacists and clinical pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals, particularly in relation to novel anticoagulant therapies.