2017 Virginia State and Regional Cumulative Antibiogram
Facility-level antibiograms provide a summary of the percentage of isolates susceptible to a variety of antimicrobial agents within a healthcare facility. They are an important tool for the development of antimicrobial stewardship policies and protocols for empiric antibiotic selection. Some facilities, however – such as small hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and physician practices – do not have enough isolates to create a facility-level antibiogram. These facilities would benefit from a regional and state wide antibiogram to help guide antibiotic selection.
The Virginia Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Group, led by the Virginia Department of Health, Health Quality Innovators, and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, addressed this gap in resources by analyzing data from facility-level antibiograms to create a regional and state-wide antibiogram.
In addition to the benefit to small facilities, the antibiogram also gives an understanding of antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance among bacteria recovered from clinical specimens across Virginia. This allows public health professionals to evaluate temporal trends and geographic patterns to guide infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship efforts.