Mississauga, ON –November 18, 2020 – PointClickCare, the leading cloud-based software platform for the senior care market, today announced that the Infection Prevention & Control solution now includes antibiotic stewardship functionality, enabling staff to optimize the usage of antibiotic agents via best practice guidelines so as not to build resistance unnecessarily. A clinical workflow and intelligence solution that helps care teams perform ongoing resident surveillance, the commercial release of Infection Prevention & Control achieves the next milestone to help our customers proactively manage and control the spread of infection amongst the senior population.
According to the World Health Organization, misuse and overuse of antibiotics are among of the main drivers of antibiotic resistance. As such, antibiotic stewardship, defined as interventions designed to optimize antibiotic use, is part of the key actions of their Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. Common infections, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and salmonellosis, are becoming harder to treat due to antibiotic resistance. Further, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result.
The stewardship functionality provides staff with a predictable and reproducible process that can be integrated into their daily workflows to ensure that treatments align as optimally as possible with patients’ specific issues. In addition to the potential for building up resistance, if patients are prescribed antibiotics that are too strong, they can suffer from Clostridioides difficile or C. diff, causing symptoms ranging from diarrhea to inflammation of the colon, according to the Mayo Clinic. In fact, there are more than 100,000 cases of difficile infections in nursing home residents annually, with up to 75% having had recent exposure to antibiotics.
“On top of the continued battle senior care facilities are facing against COVID-19, antibiotic resistance is touted as a major risk to global health with unique implications and challenges associated with senior populations. Physicians, nurses, pharmacy consultants, infection preventionists, and certified nursing assistants must all communicate and integrate stewardship efforts into their day-to-day workflow in order to ensure that residents receive the right drugs to treat their issues appropriately.”
said Nicki Fetterman, product leader at PointClickCare.
In addition to better treating patients, there are financial incentives for facilities to improve their antibiotic stewardship. “Based on our analysis, early indicators show a statistically significant improvement in antibiotic stewardship related best practices in customers using IPC versus those who are not,” said Fetterman.
PointClickCare initially made the IPC tool available to customers at no cost as part of an effort to manage and control the spread of COVID-19 amongst the senior population. In addition to the antibiotic stewardship capabilities, features included in the initial launch will remain, such as access to a repository of infection cases and a real-time dashboard that captures infection case information in accordance with industry standards. Users of the solution have reported significant time savings for frontline staffers.
“Our goal with this software is to help facilities eliminate guesswork and empower staff to make the best and safest decisions without needing to default to costly and possibly unnecessary medications, and reducing the risk of traumatic hospital readmissions. We are proud to offer operators data-driven technology that will provide them with information into what is happening in their facilities with regard to infection control, so that they can use those insights to improve outcomes.”
said Russ DePriest, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Skilled Nursing Market, PointClickCare.
For more information on the PointClickCare Infection Prevention & Control solution
About PointClickCare
With a suite of fully-integrated applications, powered by a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform, PointClickCare leads the way in helping care providers connect, collaborate, and share data within their network. Over 21,000 long-term care, senior living communities, and home health agencies use PointClickCare today, making it the North American healthcare IT market leader for the senior care industry. For more information on PointClickCare’s software solutions, visit pointclickcare.com.