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SHM’s Twitter Contest Encourages Appropriate Antibiotic Prescribing

When developing the “Fight the Resistance” campaign last year, the SHM team knew that antibiotic resistance would continue to be one of the most high-profile medical concerns heading into 2016. To promote appropriate antibiotic prescribing, SHM worked with its members to establish the following recommendations for clinicians and other hospital-based staff to promote awareness and inspire a dialogue around antibiotic stewardship:

  • Identify opportunities to engage with all hospital-based clinicians to improve antibiotic stewardship in your hospital.
  • Pay attention to appropriate antibiotic choice and resistance patterns and identify mechanisms to educate providers on overprescribing in your hospital.
  • Consider the following:

    Adhere to antibiotic treatment guidelines.

    Track the day.

    Set a stop date.

    Reevaluate therapy.

    Streamline therapy.

    Avoid automatic time courses.

As part of this initiative, SHM designed a series of posters inspired by the propaganda style of the early 20th century to display the recommendations and asked for your help to join the fight through SHM’s first Twitter contest. The support and enthusiasm from members and nonmembers alike were contagious! To enter, participants took a photo of themselves and their teams hanging a “Fight the Resistance” poster in their hospitals or offices, then tweeted the photo with the #FightTheResistance hashtag to @SHMLive.

Not only did participants receive recognition for their efforts hanging up the posters and engaging their teams, the posters’ presence in various hospitals and offices around the country created thousands of impressions among hospital-based staff and others directly responsible for proper antibiotic prescribing.

Although the contest is over, you can still help facilitate culture change related to appropriate antibiotic prescribing. Follow SHM on Twitter @SHMLive, and continue to visit FightTheResistance.org for the latest updates on the campaign and new tools to promote antibiotic stewardship. TH

Brett Radler is SHM’s communications coordinator.

Contest Winners

The #FightTheResistance contest winners share their thoughts on how the campaign and Twitter contest helped raise awareness about antibiotic stewardship and improve practices in the hospital:

“As a pediatric hospitalist, I’m always thinking about the next generation—that’s why reducing inappropriate antibiotic use that results in increased bacterial resistance is so important. Hanging up the SHM posters and talking about these issues with my division helped solidify the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Division of Hospital Medicine’s commitment to using antimicrobials wisely. It was also a lot of fun to participate and especially to win!”

—Margaret Trost, MD, pediatric hospitalist, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

“By launching this campaign as a contest, it absolutely increased the engagement level within our division. The initial photo shoot with Dr. Jack Percelay and me generated quite a bit of buzz within our office, and the photo continues to generate discussion whenever someone new sees it. Each time someone comments on or laughs at the photo, it provides me an opportunity to talk about SHM and promote the #FightTheResistance campaign.”

—James O’Callaghan, MD, SFHM, pediatric hospitalist, Seattle Children’s Hospital

“The ‘Fight the Resistance’ campaign was a great way to remind my team to remember good habits in regard to antibiotic stewardship. I’ve seen an increase in documentation of antibiotic start dates as a result.”

—Tracy Cardin, ACNP-BC, FHM, nurse practitioner, University of Chicago

“I was extremely pleased with the support I received from my hospitalist group colleagues and am hoping to participate in many more such campaigns to improve patient care.”

—Chandrasekhar Dinasarapu, MD, MPH, FHM, hospitalist, Holy Spirit Health System

“SHM did a wonderful job getting us resources about antibiotic resistance so that we could effectively spread the word to all of our colleagues. Posting the resources that SHM made available has reminded us to keep antibiotic choice in the forefront of our treatment regimen at the point of care.”

—David McAdams, MD, MS, SFHM, hospitalist, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

“Infections, and the use of antibiotics to fight them, are core to hospitalists’ practice. The contest raised awareness of stewardship in a fun way that focuses on patients.”

—John Bulger, DO, MBA, SHFM, CMO, Geisinger Health

Infectious Diseases

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