Building a Culture of Stewardship: The Role of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists in Promoting Documentation Across Pharmacy Teams

ABSTRACT Background Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) is crucial for delivering high‐quality care to patients, minimizing adverse effects and outcomes, mitigating antimicrobial resistance, and generating cost savings for the healthcare system and patients. Successful AS programs are often multi‐disciplinary, with infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists (ID/ASP) playing a key role in the implementation and coordination of care. This study evaluated the documentation of stewardship interventions following the implementation of an ID/ASP‐led stewardship program in a large Midwestern academic medical center. Methods This quasi‐experimental study evaluated the impact of hiring an ID/ASP with subsequent AS education and feedback and updated documentation methods. It was conducted from January 2023 to September 2023 (pre‐intervention) and October 2023 to December 2024 (post‐intervention), and compared the impact of an ID/ASP pharmacist on the documentation of key AS interventions by non‐ID pharmacists. The number and type of interventions and drugs used in interventions were assessed for adult and pediatric patients before and after the ID/ASP pharmacist was hired. The primary outcome was the average number of interventions documented by non‐ID pharmacists per month in the pre‐intervention period compared to the post‐intervention period. A p ‐value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 5606 non‐ID pharmacist interventions occurred throughout the study. There was a statistically significant increase in average monthly documented interventions by non‐ID pharmacists after the intervention compared to before (283 ± 102 vs. 152 ± 49, respectively; p = 0.002). Furthermore, the ID/ASP pharmacist contributed an additional average of 104 interventions per month and was able to perform high‐impact AS interventions. Conclusion This study demonstrated a positive impact of an ID/ASP pharmacist‐led AS program in a large academic medical center. The number of documented AS interventions significantly increased in the post‐intervention period. These data underscore the importance of ID/ASP in advancing the shared goal of antimicrobial stewardship.