National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use Measure

This measure assesses antimicrobial use in hospitals based on medication administration data that hospitals collect electronically at the point of care and report via electronic file submissions to CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). The antimicrobial use data that are in scope for this measure are antibacterial agents administered to adult and pediatric patients in a specified set of ward and intensive care unit locations: medical ICU, medical-surgical ICU, surgical ICU (adult only), medical ward, medical-surgical ward, surgical ward, general hematology-oncology ward (adult only), and step-down unit (adult only). The measure compares antimicrobial use that the hospitals report with antimicrobial use that is predicted on the basis of nationally aggregated data. The measure is comprised of a discrete set of ratios, Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratios (SAARs), each of which summarizes observed-to-predicted antimicrobial use for one of 40 antimicrobial agent-patient care location combinations. The SAARs are designed to serve as high value targets or high level indicators for antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). SAAR values that are outliers are intended to prompt analysis of possible overuse, underuse, or inappropriate use of antimicrobials, subsequent actions aimed at improving the quality of antimicrobial prescribing, and impact evaluations of ASP interventions.