In 2024 Decatur Health identified the need to improve our antibiotic stewardship program. Decatur Health prioritized optimizing antibiotic use to ensure effective treatment with minimal patient risk.

Efforts included:

• Improving prescribing practices

• Reducing unnecessary antibiotic use

• Implementing Education Programs

• Launching a new infection tracking system

• Improving facility wide dissemination of antibiotic stewardship data

The antibiotic stewardship program realized 97% improvement in correct antibiotic prescribing practices, decreasing our error rate from 4.47% in 2022 to 1.55% in 2023.

These efforts aided in our achievement of the Health Quality Innovator of the Year award in the Rural Health category!

Check out the recorded video about this award: https://vimeo.com/1051602634?share=copy#t=0