Building a Novel Antibiotic Stewardship Intervention for Nursing Homes

The OASIS Collaborative is an organizational intervention aimed at reducing unnecessary antibiotic use in skilled nursing facilities. The first target of intervention is the tasks carried out by nursing staff after a change in condition and after an antibiotic prescription is initiated. The second target are the management staff who provide feedback to staff. The third target are the administrators who identify and overcome organizational barriers to implementation. In this study, we will implement two tools that are intended to minimize unnecessary antibiotic use in skilled nursing facilities. The first tool helps skilled nursing facility staff assess risk and communicate with prescribers when residents experience a change in health status that may result in the use of antibiotics. The second tool is used after an antibiotic is prescribed; the tool streamlines reassessment of the patient, and provides prescribers the opportunity to consider stopping unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, narrowing the spectrum of antibiotic therapy, or shortening the duration of antibiotic therapy.