Data Points: Antibiotic resistance remains a top safety concern

Despite some progress, antibiotic resistance continues to be a major patient-safety problem. The ECRI Institute last week listed antimicrobial stewardship in physician practices as its No. 2 patient-safety concern for 2019. “We need to combat antibiotic resistance before the situation gets worse,” Stephanie Uses, patient safety analyst/consultant at the ECRI Institute patient safety organization, stated in ECRI’s report. Annually, 47 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are written in physician practices, emergency departments and hospital-based clinics, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.