Volume 11
Issue 25
December 9, 2016
PRESBYbulletin Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
Save the Date for the Presby Gala
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Board of Trustees, Administration, and Faculty kindly ask you to reserve the date for the
16th Annual Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Gala Passport to London A Life in Motion Honoring our Hospital Hero L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS Paul B. Magnuson Professor of Bone and Joint Surgery Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Professor of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery
March 24, 2017 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. VIE | 600 N Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19130 Formal invitation to follow
ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP AT PPMC Antibiotics are vital to the practice of modern medicine. They make many things that we take for granted today possible but like anything else, too much of a good thing can be bad. Changing the way antibiotics are used, and making sure they’re used appropriately, is the goal for the Antibiotic Stewardship team at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC). Led by Amanda Binkley, PharmD, AAHIVP and Christo Cimino, PharmD, BCPS, Judith O’Donnell, MD, and Naasha Talati, MD, the local group keeps a close eye on how local prescribers make use of the important drugs. The stewardship effort has a long history at Penn. One of the first antibiotic stewardship programs in the nation was started at HUP in 1992 by associate medical officer Neil Fishman, MD. Now led by Keith Hamilton, MD, an assistant professor of Clinical Medicine and infectious disease physician, remains a national model for stewardship programs. PPMC’s local stewardship team recently wrapped up its annual Antibiotic Stewardship Week, which gave faculty and staff across the hospital a chance to focus on the issue and learn more about what can be done to prevent to overprescription of antimicrobial drugs. The stewardship team set up a table with (continued on back)
PPMC SEPTA Strike Hero When many SEPTA workers went on strike last month, many Philadelphians had to get creative to find solutions for transportation in the city. Gerald Montague, a medical records clerk, was the answer for one Penn Medicine patient who was stranded at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center during the strike. Montague spotted the patient in a lobby of a nearby office at 8 p.m. The patient, who is blind and uses a wheelchair, said that he was waiting for SEPTA CCT, a SETPA service that primarily picks up the city’s senior population. should always put yourself in someone else’s situation and “ You care for them as you would want someone to care for you,” Montague said. ” The CCT ride was supposed to have picked the man up at 4:30 p.m., a full three and a half hours earlier. Montague ducked into an office, gave SEPTA a call, and discovered CCT had gone to the wrong address and they wouldn’t make a trip out to Presby that night.
Realizing it was getting late and that the man was stranded, Montague stepped up and offered the patient a ride home. Even though it was just 10 minutes out of his way, Montague made sure this patient made it home safe and sound in the dark. “I’m very proud of Gerald for this, although this isn’t anything unusual for him,” Lindsey Prendergrast, a practice manager at CPUP and Montague’s supervisor, said. “He always goes above and beyond for our patients.” “You should always put yourself in someone else’s situation and care for them as you would want someone to care for you,” Montague said.
ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP AT PPMC (continued from front)
games and educational material outside of the cafeteria. Binkley, a clinical pharmacy specialist in Infectious Disease, said it was a huge success. “It wasn’t just clinicians stopping by,” Binkley said. “A significant number of patients and patients’ families stopped by to inquire about mechanisms which they can implement and ways they can help curb antibiotic utilization.” Though Antibiotic Stewardship Week is over for 2016, the team’s work to manage responsible antibiotic use goes on all year. Binkley said the antibiotic team at Penn Presbyterian monitors antibiotic use in a few important ways. First, every day the team reviews all antibiotic prescriptions that were written across the hospital. This gives them a chance to spot any prescriptions that might not be necessary and intervene, if appropriate. Binkley said a great majority of care providers are appreciative and heed their recommendations. The team also participates in the Infectious Disease Transition Service (IDTS), in which members of the antibiotic stewardship team follow the progress of patients seen by ID consults during admission. If they are discharged with antibiotics, the team members will keep track of the patient to make sure no errors are made during transition. The IDTS started over at HUP and recently won a grant from the Penn Center for Innovation to create dashboard which will help clinicians better manage transitions. They also serve as experts on antibiotics, providing valuable information to physicians and pharmacy staff who want to make sure they are in line with best practices for antimicrobials. Binkley said the team has a pager and is always available to help prescribers make the best choices.
Contact Us: Paul Foster | paul.foster@uphs.upenn.edu | http://news.pennmedicine.org/inside/presbybulletin/