An Innovative Antimicrobial Stewardship Program for Children in Remote and Regional Areas

In this presentation Dr Avent will share results from a quality improvement study, conducted in remote and regional paediatric inpatient facilities, testing a package of intervention tools to promote the IV to oral conversion of antibiotic therapy for children with Community Acquired Pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infections.

Onsite training was provided during the implementation period and continued with telehealth support for the intervention phase from a multi-disciplinary research team from the Queensland Statewide Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program based at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Clinicians could tailor the tools to their practice setting and patient’s requirements, which is more realistic of a real-world situation.

In addition, the uptake of the intervention materials was supported by onsite paediatric clinical champions at each facility.