Skip to main content
About IDPH

Antimicrobial Stewardship in Acute Care

Resources

Approximately 30% of all antibiotics prescribed in U.S. acute care hospitals are either unnecessary or suboptimal. Serious adverse effects occur in roughly 20% of hospitalized patients who receive antibiotics. Hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs are crucial to effectively treat infections, protect patients from harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use, and combat antimicrobial resistance.

Beginning in 2024, the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) Module reporting will be a required measure under the Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange objective of the CMS Promoting Interoperability Program.

Eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) are required to be in active engagement with CDC to report both AU and AR data and receive a report from NHSN indicating their successful submission of AUR data for the EHR reporting period, or claim an applicable exclusion.

Facilities can be in active engagement in two ways:

Option 1 - Pre-production and Validation

Note: Beginning in CY 2024, facilities can only spend one calendar year in Option 1 – Pre-production and Validation.

Option 2 - Validated Data Production

For CY 2024, facilities must submit 180 continuous days of AUR data

For more information and additional resources, please see the materials in the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance section of CMS Reporting Requirements for Acute Care Hospitals page. Please direct questions about NHSN AUR Reporting to the NHSN Helpdesk: NHSN@cdc.gov.

Partnering Acute and Long-Term Care to Advance Antimicrobial Stewardship Efforts (PALASE) Collaborative

This collaborative will partner participating long-term care facilities with an acute care hospital in a 1:1 collaboration to establish robust Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASP) in long-term care settings and implement best practices for AS across the health care continuum.

Registration form

Resources