Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are advised to audit antimicrobial consumption as a metric to feedback to clinicians. However, many ASPs lack the tools necessary for appropriate risk adjustment and standardized data collection, which are critical for peer-program benchmarking....

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Main Authors: DeShauna Jones, Alexandre Marra, Daniel Livorsi, Eli Perencevich, Michihiko Goto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2022-07-01
Series:Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2732494X22000614/type/journal_article
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author DeShauna Jones
Alexandre Marra
Daniel Livorsi
Eli Perencevich
Michihiko Goto
author_facet DeShauna Jones
Alexandre Marra
Daniel Livorsi
Eli Perencevich
Michihiko Goto
author_sort DeShauna Jones
collection DOAJ
description Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are advised to audit antimicrobial consumption as a metric to feedback to clinicians. However, many ASPs lack the tools necessary for appropriate risk adjustment and standardized data collection, which are critical for peer-program benchmarking. We evaluated the impact of the dashboard deployment that displays these metrics and its acceptance among ASP members and antimicrobial prescribers. Materials/methods: We conducted semistructured interviews of ASP stewards and antimicrobial prescribers before and after implementation of a web-based ASP information dashboard (Fig. 1) implemented in the VA Midwest Health Care Network (VISN23). The dashboard provides risk-adjusted benchmarking, longitudinal trends, and analysis of antimicrobial usage patterns at each facility. Risk-adjusted benchmarking was based on an observed-to-expected comparison of antimicrobial days of therapy at each facility, after adjusting for differences in patient case mix and facility-level variables. Respondents were asked to evaluate several aspects of the dashboard, including its ease of use, applicability to ongoing ASP activities, perceived validity and reliability, and advantages compared to other ASP monitoring systems. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis was conducted using MaxQDA 2020.4 and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) constructs. Results: We completed 4 preimplementation interviews and 11 postimplementation interviews with ASP champions and antimicrobial prescribers from 6 medical centers. We derived 4 key themes from the data that map onto CFIR constructs. These themes were interconnected so that implementation of the dashboard (ie, adapting and adopting) was influenced by respondents’ perception of a facility’s size, patient population, and priority placed on stewardship (ie, structural and cultural context), the availability of dedicated stewardship staff and training needed to implement the dashboard (ie, resources needed), and how the dashboard compared to established stewardship activities (ie, relative advantage). ASP champions and antimicrobial prescribers indicated that dashboard metrics were useful for identifying antimicrobial usage and for comparing metrics among similar facilities. Respondents also specified barriers to acceptance of the risk-adjusted metric, such as disagreement regarding how antimicrobials were grouped by the current NHSN protocol, uncertainty of factors involved in risk adjustments, and difficulty developing a clear interpretation of hospital rankings. Conclusions: Given the limited resources for antimicrobial stewardship personnel, automated, risk-adjusted, antimicrobial-use dashboards provided by ASPs are an attractive method to both facilitate compliance and improve efficiency. To increase the uptake of surveillance systems in antimicrobial stewardship, our study highlights the need for clear descriptions of methods and metrics.
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spelling doaj.art-57b3688d5a7d4036acda3219c85efc012023-03-09T12:28:11ZengCambridge University PressAntimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology2732-494X2022-07-012s4s410.1017/ash.2022.61Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHADeShauna JonesAlexandre MarraDaniel LivorsiEli PerencevichMichihiko GotoBackground: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are advised to audit antimicrobial consumption as a metric to feedback to clinicians. However, many ASPs lack the tools necessary for appropriate risk adjustment and standardized data collection, which are critical for peer-program benchmarking. We evaluated the impact of the dashboard deployment that displays these metrics and its acceptance among ASP members and antimicrobial prescribers. Materials/methods: We conducted semistructured interviews of ASP stewards and antimicrobial prescribers before and after implementation of a web-based ASP information dashboard (Fig. 1) implemented in the VA Midwest Health Care Network (VISN23). The dashboard provides risk-adjusted benchmarking, longitudinal trends, and analysis of antimicrobial usage patterns at each facility. Risk-adjusted benchmarking was based on an observed-to-expected comparison of antimicrobial days of therapy at each facility, after adjusting for differences in patient case mix and facility-level variables. Respondents were asked to evaluate several aspects of the dashboard, including its ease of use, applicability to ongoing ASP activities, perceived validity and reliability, and advantages compared to other ASP monitoring systems. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis was conducted using MaxQDA 2020.4 and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) constructs. Results: We completed 4 preimplementation interviews and 11 postimplementation interviews with ASP champions and antimicrobial prescribers from 6 medical centers. We derived 4 key themes from the data that map onto CFIR constructs. These themes were interconnected so that implementation of the dashboard (ie, adapting and adopting) was influenced by respondents’ perception of a facility’s size, patient population, and priority placed on stewardship (ie, structural and cultural context), the availability of dedicated stewardship staff and training needed to implement the dashboard (ie, resources needed), and how the dashboard compared to established stewardship activities (ie, relative advantage). ASP champions and antimicrobial prescribers indicated that dashboard metrics were useful for identifying antimicrobial usage and for comparing metrics among similar facilities. Respondents also specified barriers to acceptance of the risk-adjusted metric, such as disagreement regarding how antimicrobials were grouped by the current NHSN protocol, uncertainty of factors involved in risk adjustments, and difficulty developing a clear interpretation of hospital rankings. Conclusions: Given the limited resources for antimicrobial stewardship personnel, automated, risk-adjusted, antimicrobial-use dashboards provided by ASPs are an attractive method to both facilitate compliance and improve efficiency. To increase the uptake of surveillance systems in antimicrobial stewardship, our study highlights the need for clear descriptions of methods and metrics.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2732494X22000614/type/journal_article
spellingShingle DeShauna Jones
Alexandre Marra
Daniel Livorsi
Eli Perencevich
Michihiko Goto
Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology
title Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
title_full Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
title_fullStr Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
title_full_unstemmed Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
title_short Qualitative Evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the VHA
title_sort qualitative evaluation of an automated nationwide benchmarking antimicrobial utilization dashboard for the vha
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2732494X22000614/type/journal_article
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