Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has become the first hospital outside the United States to be named an Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
The designation serves as international recognition that Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s antimicrobial stewardship program meets or exceeds the highest standards in optimizing antimicrobial use and combating antimicrobial resistance – declared one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity by the World Health Organization. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is now among the 131 programs from the United States, and the only one outside the United States, that have received the designation since its launch in 2017.
“This designation is the culmination of years of work across our organization to put antimicrobial stewardship at the forefront of patient care. If you look at healthcare globally, we see that antimicrobial resistance has gone from something people talk about in more abstract terms to something they battle every day. We see our role as protecting the quality, safety and effectiveness of our care for future generations,” said Rania El-Lababidi, Co- Director of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s antimicrobial stewardship program.
At the heart of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s antimicrobial stewardship program is a collaboration between the hospital’s pharmacy and infectious disease physicians who provide a layer of oversight on patient care. A pharmacist specialized in infectious diseases works with an infectious disease consultant to review patient records who have been prescribed antimicrobial medications and identify opportunities to further optimize their care.
In addition to optimizing efforts to curb and control antibiotic use, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s antimicrobial stewardship program is committed to supporting wider efforts to combat the rise of drug-resistant diseases. It has taken on an advisory role with numerous other providers across the UAE and in Saudi Arabia to support the development of their antimicrobial stewardship programs. The hospital also works closely with Abu Dhabi and UAE antimicrobial resistance committees on local and national guidelines.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi operates an antimicrobial stewardship training
program though its ‘ASP Academy’. The two-week program provides healthcare
professionals from across the UAE with the knowledge, tools and experiences they need to establish similar programs in their local facilities.
