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Defined Daily Dose (DDD)

Calculation example In this video William Malcolm shows you a worked example of a DDD calculation, using the WHO DDDs, for an individual patient prescribed oral amoxycillin. Remember this is …

What are defined daily doses (DDDs)?

In this video William Malcolm explains what defined daily doses (DDDs) are. So far we have considered why measurement of antibiotic use is a key cornerstone of any antimicrobial stewardship …

Quality improvement in action

As we have heard from Dr Robson, the high rate of adverse events in hospital patients has driven us to improve practice, reduce errors and understand near misses as well …

Interview with Dr Andrew Seaton (Part 2)

In Part 2 Dr Seaton describes how the guidelines were implemented, the measuring procedures used and how successful the implementation was. Some of the terms which Dr Seaton uses in …

Interview with Dr. Andrew Seaton (Part 1)

In this video Dr Andrew Seaton, Clinical Lead for the Antimicrobial Management Team in Glasgow, describes how a quality improvement approach was used to change antibiotic prescribing practice during an …

Interview with Dr. Brian Robson

This video introduces Dr Brian Robson, Clinical Director of Healthcare Improvement Scotland and IHI Fellow. Dr Robson explains why measurement is important to improve safety in health care.

Measurement for quality improvement

Measurement has been used for centuries in research but more recently has become a cornerstone of benchmarking and scrutiny within healthcare. It is also utilised through various methodologies to improve …

Twitter chat

Dr Jacqueline Sneddon and Mr William Malcolm will be hosting a twitter chat on 16th October at 16:00 BST. The chat is open to anyone and you can join in …

Why measure?

In this video, Mr William Malcolm explains the importance of measurement in antimicrobial stewardship, and how it is fundamental to Quality Improvement Science.

Unintended negative consequences

All quality improvement initiatives can have unintended negative consequences and it is important to think about and try and predict such problems before implementation. For example, the introduction of a …

Five essential activities for all hospitals

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare recommends five essential and four additional activities for antimicrobial stewardship in Australian hospitals as detailed below: Five Essential Activities for all …

Interventions

A restrictive strategy uses interventions that either prevent or provide a ‘barrier’ to prescribing or administering an antibiotic. Restrictive interventions are more effective than educational interventions in the short-term, but …

The provision of educational approaches

It is important to remember that different individuals, at different stages of their careers, are likely to have different learning preferences and educational requirements. Depending on the resources available to …

Low hanging fruit

There are many potential strategies, interventions and/or tools that can be used to drive stewardship improvement, but they need to be tailored to your local context and antibiotic stewardship issues. …