TTSH's antimicrobial stewardship programme has seen patients recover faster and get discharged sooner. Launched last year and co-funded by the Health Ministry, the programme has helped doctors prescribe appropriate antibiotics at the right dosage for the right duration. The result, shorter stays in hospital and some bacteria have also become less resistant to medication.
The programme headed byDr David Lye, Consultant, Department of Infectious Diseases, involved collecting 2 years of data to build a computer program that gives doctors information to help them make the best decisions in prescribing antibiotics.
The programme first focused on Carbapenems which are last-line antibiotics for hard-to-treat infections and also one of the most expensive antibiotics around. Since the launch of the programme, there has been a near 50 per cent drop in Carbapenems usage. The dosage for Ceftriaxone and Ciprofloxacin, which are the two commonly used antibiotics, have also dropped by 34% and 16% respectively. Previously, Cefiriaxone has only 50% chance of working on patients infected with the Klebsiella bacteria, but this has since increased by 15%.
As the programme has reduced the amount of antibiotics used, cost have also come down for the hospital. From 2005 to 2008, antibiotic costs increased by about 25 per cent. Last year however, TTSH saw a 9 per cent increase in cost for antibiotics.
