Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center was recently recognized as a Silver Level Antimicrobial Stewardship Recognition Program award recipient by the New Jersey Department of Health.
Antimicrobial stewardship programs set appropriate use standards in place for the prescription and use of antimicrobials, medications used to prevent and treat infections, such as antibiotics.
These programs help improve patient outcomes, reduce the risk of infection spreading and reduce the risk of patient resistance to antimicrobials.
“The Mountainside Medical Center antimicrobial stewardship team has been working extremely hard to improve our clinical outcomes and medication safety protocols while reducing our patients’ risk of antimicrobial resistance,” Dr. Valerie Allusson, chief medical officer at Mountainside Medical Center, said. “I am extremely proud of the efforts of this team and the achievements they have accomplished.”
The New Jersey Antimicrobial Stewardship Recognition Awards is a voluntary incentive program that encourages health care facilities to submit stewardship materials in concordance with CDC’s Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship, a set of key principles to guide efforts to improve antibiotic use and advance patient safety and improve outcomes.
Mountainside Medical Center’s antimicrobial stewardship team works closely with the organization’s infectious disease physicians to set a multipronged approach in place regarding antimicrobial usage.
“Without the support of such a great team involved in every step of the patient journey, from the emergency department to admission and discharge, we would not be where we are today,” Dr. Mona Nashed, co-leader of the antimicrobial stewardship team at Mountainside Medical Center, said. “We realize that antibiotics are truly a finite resource, and we need everyone’s help to make sure that we keep these resources for future generations.”
Mountainside Medical Center was also recognized as an Antimicrobial Stewardship Recognition Program award recipient in 2020 and 2021.
