Q&A With Robert A. Weinstein, MD, From Rush University: Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs in Medical Facilities

Antimicrobial stewardship programs are becoming more popular across the country, particularly in larger facilities. A recent push has worked to extend that effort into small hospitals and outpatient facilities as well.

Robert A. Weinstein, MD, from Rush University discussed how the issue has taken center stage on the national medical scene with the federal government looking at ways to implement or encourage implementing programs across the country at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine meeting in Boston. Weinstein said the programs can be operated in several ways and are a matter of "education and getting physicans to think more proactively about the correct diagnosis, the correct drug, getting source control, and duration of antibiotics and de-escalation of antibiotics."