The Department of Medicine’s Infectious Diseases Program, under the direction of David Pitrak,MD, has been awarded the designation of Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence (CoE) by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The CoE program recognizes institutions that have created stewardship programs led by infectious diseases physicians and ID-trained pharmacists that are of the highest quality and have achieved standards aligned with evidence-based national guidelines and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Core Elements. Jennifer Pisano,MD, assistant professor of medicine, serves as the medical director for the Antibiotic Stewardship Program for the medical center. A total of 41 programs nationwide have received the designation since the program’s launch in 2017 with 12 institutions earning the designation in 2019.
The core criteria for the CoE program place emphasis on an institution’s ability to implement stewardship protocols to optimize the treatment of infections and reduce adverse events associated with antibiotic use leveraging electronic health record systems and providing ongoing education to help clinicians improve the quality of patient care and promote patient safety.