Premier Recommends Steps to Curb Antimicrobial Resistance
Premier submitted a statement for the record for the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee hearing entitled, Antimicrobial Resistance: Examining an Emerging Public Health Threat. Premier has long recognized the critical need for antibiotic stewardship and is committed to reducing antimicrobial resistance, including through our own data-driven solutions, research and educational services, and performance improvement collaboratives. In our statement, we urged Congress to support these efforts by advancing policies to:
Harness the power of technology. Premier urged the committee to advance antimicrobial stewardship by incentivizing the adoption and utilization of AI-enabled technology in healthcare. Premier offered a case study evaluating the use of clinical surveillance technology to identify overuse of antibiotics and drug-bug mismatches, reduce time-to-appropriate therapy and enhance therapy for difficult-to-treat pathogens. We also urged Congress to designate funds to ensure nursing homes can implement electronic clinical surveillance technology that will provide meaningful assistance with infection control, improve quality and reduce costs.
Leverage collaborative models. Premier recommends that Congress support the development of a hospital collaborative to drive engagement, improvement and innovation in patient safety, including through advancing best practices in antimicrobial stewardship.
Ensure access to older generic antibiotics. Premier underscored the importance of ensuring older generic injectable antibiotics which have been on the FDA drug shortage list for years – such as penicillin, cefazolin, cefotaxime, and erythromycin – are available for patient use.
