GNYHA’s recent webinar for members participating in its Antibiotic Use and Resistance (AUR) Collaborative featured a speaker from the Tennessee Department of Health. Christopher Evans, PharmD, Pharmacist, Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) Program, discussed the National Healthcare Safety Network’s AR option. He said its purpose is to create a standardized method to evaluate AR data as well as to improve local providers’ awareness of further clinical decision making.
Erin DuPree, MD, GNYHA’s Senior Vice President and Physician Executive, Quality and Clinical Initiatives, reviewed recent news and upcoming AUR Collaborative events. She highlighted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent proposal to split the AUR surveillance measure into two separate measures—antimicrobial use (AU) surveillance and AR surveillance—beginning with the calendar year (CY) 2025 electronic health record (EHR) reporting period. Dr. DuPree also highlighted CMS’s proposals to add a new exclusion for eligible hospitals that lack discrete electronic access to data elements that are required for AU or AR surveillance reporting; modify the applicability of the existing exclusions for the AUR surveillance measure to apply to the proposed AU and AR surveillance measures, respectively; and treat the AU and AR surveillance measures as two new measures beginning with the CY 2025 EHR reporting period.
Rob O’Neil, GNYHA’s Senior Director, Survey and Outcomes Research, reported on the AUR Collaborative Progress Survey, noting that 68% of hospitals have met the goal of reporting 180 continuous days of AU data.