4 Topic Commentaries

Diagnostic Stewardship Cuts Testing in Sick Infants

Diagnostic Stewardship Cuts Testing in Sick Infants

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  Anna Sick-Samuels, MD, MPH

  Pediatric Infectious Diseases

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  Johns Hopkins Children’s Center; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  The findings of this study show that it is feasible to reduce respiratory cultures among patients who do not have signs of a respiratory tract infection, and also that testing less was not associated with any patient harm, reinforcing the idea that thoughtfully testing less can be safe,”

  Source
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  Aaron Milstone, MD, MHS

  Pediatric Infectious Diseases

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  Johns Hopkins Children’s Center; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  These findings suggest that multidisciplinary efforts to standardize blood culture collection and avoid unnecessary testing in the PICU can be done successfully and safely in diverse settings, and that reducing blood culture use can, in turn, reduce broad-spectrum antibiotic use,”

  Source
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  Charlotte Z. Woods-Hill, MD, MSHP

  Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

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  Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania

  With our support, the different sites created a clinical algorithm to help front-line providers evaluate patients with fevers, optimize decisions and consider questions like: ‘How do I think about that patient? Do they need a blood culture? Did they have a blood culture already?’ ”

  Source
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  Robert H. Pantell, MD

  General Pediatrics

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  UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals; University of California, San Francisco

  Beyond unnecessary hospitalizations and financial and social costs, there are also potential harms from hospital-acquired infections and other complications in prolonged hospitalizations,”

  Source