This book focuses on topics ranging from the economics of drug-resistant infections and the management of antimicrobial use to new information on methods to optimize the selection, route of administration, dosing, and duration of antimicrobial therapies for common infections. In addition to offering ideas on studied programmatic approaches for judicious utilization of antimicrobial agents, this reference discusses practical means to track intervention outcomes through benchmarking. Authored by experts in their respective fields, the book contains essential principles and practical strategies to optimize the utility of antimicrobial agents in modern inpatient health care settings.

Increasing antimicrobial resistance in hospital settings is due, in large part, to suboptimal antimicrobial use. In this work, Owens (medicine, U. of Vermont College of Medicine), Ambrose (pharmaceutical sciences, U. of Buffalo), and Nightingale (no affiliations mentioned in the text) present 19 chapters that distill the guidelines and recommendations for preventing and reducing antimicrobial resistance in hospitals published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Health, while incorporating emerging data related to the use of antimicrobial agents in institutional settings. The first addresses fundamental concepts including the role of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, antimicrobial resistance, health economics, pharmacodynamics, and benchmarking antimicrobial use. It then turns to applications, offering chapters on antimicrobial stewardship programs, the role of computer-assisted decision support, infection control programs, short course therapy, and the institutional use of antifungal agents.
Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Increasing antimicrobial resistance in hospital settings is due, in large part, to suboptimal antimicrobial use. In this work, Owens (medicine, U. of Vermont College of Medicine), Ambrose (pharmaceutical sciences, U. of Buffalo), and Nightingale (no affiliations mentioned in the text) present 19 chapters that distill the guidelines and recommendations for preventing and reducing antimicrobial resistance in hospitals published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Health, while incorporating emerging data related to the use of antimicrobial agents in institutional settings. The first addresses fundamental concepts including the role of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, antimicrobial resistance, health economics, pharmacodynamics, and benchmarking antimicrobial use. It then turns to applications, offering chapters on antimicrobial stewardship programs, the role of computer-assisted decision support, infection control programs, short course therapy, and the institutional use of antifungal agents. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)