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VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital (VCU Health CMH) earned Gold Status for the Virginia Antibiotic Stewardship Honor Roll program.

This means the hospital meets specific criteria in the education and appropriate use of antibiotics. Typically, the more antibiotics a person is prescribed, the less effective they are in treating illness. An interdisciplinary team established interventions to limit and track antibiotic use. Patients can expect to only be prescribed medication that is needed to keep them healthy.

April Dyer resides in Durham, North Carolina. She is a clinical pharmacist at Duke University Medical Center and the liaison from D.A.S.O.N. (Duke Antimicrobial Stewardship Outreach Network).  She keeps the hospital up to date in antimicrobial stewardship.

“Through VCU Health CMH’s stewardship interventions, they decreased overall antibiotic use 8.9% from 2018 to 2019.  During the same period, they noted decreases of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) cases by 14.73%,” Dyer said.

Pharmacist Kathy Sims, RPh., lives in Mecklenburg County.

“At its core, antibiotic stewardship is a patient safety initiative that improves the quality of care we provide for patients at VCU Health CMH,” she said. “We are honored that the Virginia Department of Health recognizes our antibiotic stewardship program as meeting this goal. This achievement would not be possible without the hard work of our antibiotic stewardship team.”