Alberta Health Services (AHS) Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) aims to improve the appropriateness of antimicrobial use within AHS acute care sites by measuring antimicrobial use, reviewing and optimizing antimicrobial prescriptions and offering education for prescribers to align with best practices.

Through optimizing antimicrobial prescribing, the ASP works collaboratively with prescribers to:

• reduce unnecessary adverse drug reactions;
• reduce C. difficile infection rates;
• decrease antimicrobial resistance; and, ultimately,
• improve patient outcomes.

Program Details

What does the ASP do for AHS acute care sites?

• Measure and report on antimicrobial use to inform organizational decision making, identify areas of suboptimal antimicrobial use, and prioritize ASP interventions.
• Design, implement and evaluate quality improvement initiatives to improve the appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing and management of infectious diseases.
• Promote best practices in antimicrobial use by developing and implementing educational programs and tools to ensure guideline-based prescribing.
• Consult in the design and implementation of AHS policies, protocols, guidelines or order sets involving infectious diseases and antimicrobial use to facilitate optimized antimicrobial use and patient outcomes.

An ASP is an Accreditation Canada required organizational practice for all acute care sites and with stepwise implementation across Alberta hospitals, AHS is dedicated to ensuring an integrated provincial program with large scale impacts on antimicrobial use and improved inpatient outcomes for Albertans.