Improving clinical and public health outcomes through national partnerships to prevent and control emerging and RE-emerging infectious disease threats - building on the major activities in budget…

Improving clinical and public health outcomes through national partnerships to prevent and control emerging and RE-emerging infectious disease threats - building on the major activities in budget period 2, the national association of chain drug stores (nacds) will continue to gather and assemble the most relevant antibiotic stewardship materials for the chain pharmacy industry on an ongoing basis throughout the next budget period. Nacds will continue to disseminate these materials through numerous, established communication strategies, including through an existing workgroup, with the goal of increasing awareness and use of these materials and fostering appropriate antibiotic use in the long-term. To amplify these dissemination activities, nacds will also leverage our existing communications infrastructure, such as social media, press release or memo, to further share key information across our industry. Beyond existing resources, nacds will collaborate with CDC in leveraging the resource GAP analysis results from budget period 2 to explore the development of new resources to foster antibiotic stewardship efforts within community pharmacies. Consideration will be provided to the development of papers and reports, in addition to the exploration of a potential future demonstration project, with the goal of identifying challenges and opportunities to foster uptake of antibiotic stewardship activities within community pharmacies. Given that most efforts to improve antibiotic stewardship occur in the inpatient setting, yet inappropriate antibiotic use occurs frequently in the outpatient setting as well, community pharmacies can play a critical role to improve stewardship. Pharmacists are medication experts. During the medication dispensing process, pharmacists focus on the safety and efficacy of each prescription. They work to ensure the appropriate indication and use of all medications, including antibiotics. The papers/reports and potential pilot planning efforts will aim to support additional and enhanced development, implementation, and uptake of antibiotic stewardship activities and initiatives within community pharmacies, leveraging pharmacists as medication experts and pharmacies as the most accessible healthcare setting. Additionally, to support broader collaboration on antibiotic stewardship activities and initiatives across communities, nacds will host a roundtable event with key stakeholders. Intended outcomes of these activities include 1. Increased resource sharing and awareness of existing antimicrobial stewardship resources among nacds members; 2. The development of resources, reports, and/or a future pilot project framework to explore opportunities for future adoption and sustainable implementation of antibiotic stewardship activities within community pharmacies; and 3. Improved collaboration across key stakeholders to promote antibiotic stewardship initiatives.