{"id":6262,"date":"2025-11-19T12:15:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/?p=6262"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:43:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:43:27","slug":"antibiotic-awareness-week-why-diagnostic-stewardship-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/2025\/11\/19\/antibiotic-awareness-week-why-diagnostic-stewardship-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Antibiotic Awareness Week: Why Diagnostic Stewardship Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p>Antibiotics are life-saving when used appropriately, but they do not treat viral infections like colds, influenza, or COVID-19. Despite this, inappropriate prescribing remains common in outpatient settings. Studies show that <strong>nearly 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary<\/strong> (CDC). Every unnecessary prescription increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), adverse drug reactions, and Clostridioides difficile infections. Diagnostic stewardship, using evidence-based tools and tests to guide prescribing, is essential for clinicians to ensure antibiotics are reserved for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biomerieux.com\/us\/en\/education\/resource-hub\/solution-education\/antimicrobial-resistance\/cdc-white-paper-advancing-diagnostic-stewardship-for-healthcare-associated-infections-antibiotic-resistance-and-sepsis.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"bacterial infections, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bacterial infections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Rapid Diagnostics Are Critical<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Rapid diagnostics are a cornerstone of antimicrobial stewardship because they:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Reduce unnecessary antibiotic use:<\/strong> Quickly confirm viral vs bacterial infections, preventing \u201cjust in case\u201d prescribing (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infectioncontroltoday.com\/view\/critical-role-rapid-diagnostics-antibiotic-stewardship\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Infection Control Today, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Infection Control Today<\/a>). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infectioncontroltoday.com\/view\/critical-role-rapid-diagnostics-antibiotic-stewardship\">[infectionc&#8230;ltoday.com]<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Optimize therapy early:<\/strong> Traditional cultures take 24\u201372 hours; rapid tests allow targeted therapy sooner and support de-escalation (<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/79\/2\/502\/7659311\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Clinical Infectious Diseases, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clinical Infectious Diseases<\/a>). <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/79\/2\/502\/7659311\">[academic.oup.com]<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Improve patient outcomes:<\/strong> Accurate, timely results mean appropriate treatment without delay and fewer adverse effects (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanpharmaceuticalreview.com\/Featured-Articles\/618933-The-Critical-Role-of-Diagnostics-in-Antimicrobial-Stewardship\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"American Pharmaceutical Review, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American Pharmaceutical Review<\/a>). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanpharmaceuticalreview.com\/Featured-Articles\/618933-The-Critical-Role-of-Diagnostics-in-Antimicrobial-Stewardship\/\">[americanph&#8230;review.com]<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Support stewardship programs:<\/strong> Provide actionable data for antibiotic time-outs and audit-feedback initiatives (<a href=\"https:\/\/reach.cdc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/job-aids-resources\/Diagnostic%20Stewardship%20Toolkit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"CDC Diagnostic Stewardship Toolkit, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CDC Diagnostic Stewardship Toolkit<\/a>). <a href=\"https:\/\/reach.cdc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/job-aids-resources\/Diagnostic%20Stewardship%20Toolkit.pdf\">[reach.cdc.gov]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Examples of Rapid Diagnostics:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>PCR panels for respiratory pathogens, blood cultures, meningitis panel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rapid strep tests<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Point-of-care influenza, COVID-19, and RSV assays<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Learn More:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idsociety.org\/practice-guideline\/implementing-an-ASP\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"IDSA Guidance on Rapid Diagnostics, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IDSA Guidance on Rapid Diagnostics<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idsociety.org\/practice-guideline\/implementing-an-ASP\/\">[idsociety.org]<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology\/article\/principles-of-diagnostic-stewardship-a-practical-guide-from-the-society-for-healthcare-epidemiology-of-america-diagnostic-stewardship-task-force\/324C90B8F54885D28CC9218433901E0A\">SHEA Principles of Diagnostic Stewardship<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Check out some of our UNMC ID Faculty members scholarly work on diagnostic stewardship:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology\/article\/principles-of-diagnostic-stewardship-a-practical-guide-from-the-society-for-healthcare-epidemiology-of-america-diagnostic-stewardship-task-force\/324C90B8F54885D28CC9218433901E0A\">Principles of diagnostic stewardship: A practical guide from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Diagnostic Stewardship Task Force | Infection Control &amp; Hospital Epidemiology | Cambridge Core<\/a> (Trevor Van Schooneveld, MD)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/stewardship-of-metagenomic-sequencing\/id1192338467?i=1000726938916&amp;l=fr-FR\">Stewardship of Metagenomic Seq\u2026 \u2011 The SHEA Podcast \u2011 Apple\u00a0Podcasts<\/a> (Trevor Van Schooneveld, MD)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaloptions.com\/events\/rapid-ast-for-bloodstream-infections\/21929\">The Next Frontier: Rapid AST to Optimize Care of Patients With Bloodstream Infections | CCO<\/a> (Jasmine Marcelin, MD)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ofid\/article\/11\/9\/ofae479\/7739944\">Every Crisis Is an Opportunity: Advancing Blood Culture Stewardship During a Blood Culture Bottle Shortage | Open Forum Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic<\/a> (Jonathan Ryder, MD, Trevor Van Schooneveld, MD)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antibiotics are life-saving when used appropriately, but they do not treat viral infections like colds, influenza, or COVID-19. Despite this, inappropriate prescribing remains common in outpatient settings. Studies show that nearly 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary (CDC). Every unnecessary prescription increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), adverse drug reactions, and Clostridioides difficile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":6255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207,68],"tags":[55,90,126,233],"class_list":["post-6262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antibiotic-awareness-week","category-antimicrobial-stewardship","tag-antibioticawarenessweek","tag-antimicrobialstewardship","tag-diagnosticstewardship","tag-usaaw25"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6263,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions\/6263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}