HAP Resource Center

Case Study: Mercy Philadelphia Hospital 2019 HAP Achievement Award

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Awarded for:  Pharmacist-driven Vancomycin Monitoring Initiative

In Safe Hands

Medium Organizations

The goal:  Implement pharmacist-driven monitoring and dosage recommendations to reduce the number of patients experiencing toxicity in the kidneys resulting from the administration of the antibiotic vancomycin.

Clinical team at Mercy Philadelphia HospitalThe rollout of this pharmacist-driven initiative included:

  • Educational in-service about vancomycin therapy dosing and monitoring for all pharmacists
  • Updates to the hospital-wide empiric dosing protocol
  • Dedication of time for the monitoring process as part of the daily pharmacist workflow and schedule
  • On-going clinical support for pharmacists

Results:  Data suggests an encouraging downward trend in kidney toxicity after instituting the monitoring initiative. Specifically:

  • An increase in the percentage of patients who had their vancomycin levels monitored
  • A significant rise in the percentage of patients reaching target vancomycin levels (16% pre-monitoring compared to 60.3% post)
  • A reduction in the percentage of patients showing increased kidney toxicity (11% pre-monitoring compared to 5.6% post)

 

 

 

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Topics: Population Health, Quality Initiatives

Revision Date: 9/1/2019

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