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51 ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE & STEWARDSHIP 5 ways bedside nurses can improve antibiotic stewardship By Anuja Vaidya E nsuring bedside nurses are integrated into antibiotic stewardship activities can help those activities be successful, according to a study pub- lished in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Researchers found several areas where nurses' exper- tise can be used to improve antibiotic stewardship programs, including: • Conducting appropriate testing for Clostridioi- des difficile infection • Utilizing appropriate urine culturing practices • Ensuring optimal antibiotic administration and transitions • Detailing penicillin allergy histories • Ensuring appropriate antibiotic timeouts Hospital leaders can integrate nurses into antibiotic stewardship in several ways, including on-the-job learning about antibiotics, potential drug interac- tions and adverse drug events, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which funded the study. n Pediatric telemedicine visits may lead to uptick in antibiotic overprescribing By Jackie Drees P ediatric patients were more often prescribed antibiotics during direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits than during in-person urgent care or primary care appointments, ac- cording to research published in Pediatrics. UPMC Children's Hospital Pittsburgh researchers contrast- ed antibiotic prescribing rates among pediatric patients with acute respiratory infections who underwent telemedicine visits to patients who had appointments at primary care offices and urgent care centers. Variables such as age, state and diagnosis were matched among the datasets. Researchers pulled informa- tion from a national health plan database that covers more than 4 million children in the U.S. annually and also works with a direct-to-consumer telemedicine vendor. Results of the study showed pediatric patients received prescrip- tions during 52 percent of telemedicine visits, in comparison to 42 percent of urgent care visits and 31 percent of primary care provider appointments. Study authors concluded that the differences in antibiotic prescrib- ing found among pediatric patients were larger than differences found in similar analyses of adult telemedicine appointments. n Patient privacy curtains often contaminated with superbugs, study finds By Anuja Vaidya C ontamination of patient privacy curtains with multidrug-resistant organisms is common, according to a study presented at the Europe- an Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases meeting in Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 13 through April 16. Researchers from Michigan Medicine's University Hos- pital in Ann Arbor conducted the study at six skilled nursing facilities in southeast Michigan. They collected cultures from several patient body sites and high- touch surfaces in the patient's room. They collected cultures upon patient admission, on day 14, on day 20 and every month for six months. The research team collected 1,521 samples from pri- vacy curtains in 625 short-stay patients' rooms. They found that 334, or 22 percent, of the cultures obtained from privacy curtains were positive for multi- drug-resistant organisms, including 13.8 percent that tested positive for vancomycin-resistant enterococci, 6.2 percent for resistant Gram-negative bacilli and 4.9 percent for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus au- reus. There was no difference in curtain contamination between private rooms and shared rooms. Additionally, researchers found beside curtain con- tamination was linked to patients becoming colonized with MRSA and VRE. n