Three UCI Health hospitals honored in the Antimicrobial Stewardship Honor Roll

UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Los Alamitos receive gold; UCI Health — Fountain Valley receives bronze

Orange, Calif. — UCI Health ― Orange, formerly UCI Medical Center, and UCI Health ― Los Alamitos have received the Gold Antimicrobial Stewardship Honor Roll designation, the highest possible recognition from the California Department of Public Health Healthcare-Associated Infections Program. UCI Health ― Fountain Valley was recognized with the Bronze Award.

The designation goes to the top antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) in California. Such programs:

• Promote the optimal use of antimicrobials
• Prevent emergence of antimicrobial resistance and C. difficile infections
• Demonstrate clinically meaningful outcomes from stewardship interventions
• Incorporate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship

“UCI Health is proud to be a leader in the critical effort to combat antibiotic resistance and the emergence of multidrug resistant organisms here and in healthcare settings across the country,” said Dr. Joseph Carmichael, chief medical officer and senior vice president with UCI Health.

“The three-year designation is a reflection of our health system’s engagement with the global healthcare community to save lives and ensure the safety of patients in our health system and beyond.”

Antibiotic resistance is a major public health threat. It makes infections harder to treat and adds additional risk to surgery and other procedures. The CDC estimates that more than 2.8 million infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria occur in the U.S. annually. In 2019, the World Health Organization attributed 1.27 million deaths to antibiotic resistance globally.

Leading the fight against multidrug resistant organisms

UCI Health is actively engaged in research that advances the understanding of and fight against antibiotic resistance and the emergence of multidrug resistant organisms.

Dr. Susan Huang, the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UCI Health, is among the nation’s leading clinicians and researchers in the field of infection prevention and combating MDROs. She led the Shared Healthcare Intervention to Eliminate Life-threatening Dissemination of MDROs (SHIELD), a regional decolonization collaboration that involved 16 hospitals, 16 nursing homes and three long-term acute care facilities.

Specializing in the prevention of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals and nursing homes, her research has been developed into protocols that have been adopted by the CDC, the Orange County Health Care Agency and health institutions across the nation.

Dr. Shruti Gohil, the associate medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UCI Health, was the senior investigator for the INSPIRE Abdominal and Skin & Soft Tissue Trials, which found that real-time, algorithm-driven alerts improved antibiotic selection for patients hospitalized with abdominal or skin and soft tissue infection, helping reduce their risk of antibiotic resistance.

Helping clinicians tailor antibiotics to individual patients based on risk can improve patient outcomes by preserving healthy bacteria in the body and reducing the risk of future antibiotic resistance and serious adverse events, such as kidney/liver toxicity and C. difficile infection.