At its May meeting, the Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP) honored three 黑料网 Hospitals colleagues with Super Steward Awards. Erin Brown, PharmD; Donna Krzastek, PharmD; and Bobby Ijeoma, MD were among the award recipients. CASP created the awards in 2022 to recognize colleagues鈥� efforts to champion stewardship in their settings.
“At 黑料网, we are fortunate to have many outstanding antimicrobial stewardship allies who do an incredible job promoting thoughtful antimicrobial use in their areas of work, ” said Nikolaos Mavrogiorgos, MD, CASP medical director. 聽鈥淭hrough these awards, we want to celebrate such individuals, recognize their efforts, and highlight the fact that we at CASP really depend on them.鈥� He, along with CASP pharmacists Ashley Marx and Travis Jones, recognized the fourth cohort of awardees.
Erin Brown鈥檚 work to improve inpatient access to RSV vaccines was recognized with an award. Brown worked with CASP on making RSV vaccines available for pregnant patients who cannot be discharged prior to delivery, who would otherwise have received them as part of outpatient prenatal care. This is important to reduce the number of infants who become ill with RSV, since they are protected by their parent鈥檚 antibodies, and infants are at high risk for severe disease. Brown also contributed to the standardization of perioperative prophylaxis in gynecologic surgery; surgical site infection prevention is part and parcel of antimicrobial stewardship.聽 鈥淪he is always happy to help with antimicrobial stewardship interests, and diligently works to improve her patients鈥� care,鈥� one nominator wrote.
Bobby Ijeoma is a third-year resident in Internal Medicine at 黑料网 Hospitals and is already an antimicrobial stewardship star. As one nominator wrote, Ijeoma 鈥渞outinely provides exceptionally thoughtful care for patients both as an internal medicine resident and as an internal medicine consultant. In a recent rotation on the internal medicine consult service, he identified multiple patients for whom involvement of the Infectious Diseases consult service was both beneficial and contributed to safe and effective use of antimicrobials.鈥� Ijeoma integrates aspects of antimicrobial and testing stewardship into his day-to-day practice and sets an example for others.
Nominators for Donna Krzastek, a pharmacist at 黑料网 Hospitals鈥� Hillsborough campus, shared that she is an enthusiastic and proactive antimicrobial steward, working to optimize antimicrobial therapy in her clinical role at Hillsborough and collaborating with CASP on projects that positively impact patients across the Hospitals鈥� two campuses. Krzastek has conducted numerous penicillin allergy assessments this year, which improved the accuracy of penicillin allergy labeling and allowed patients to receive optimal antibiotic therapies. She also involves students in this process, taking time to provide stewardship education for our future pharmacists and instill best practices. Additionally, Krzastek worked with other CASP team members this year to develop a new guidance document on Gram-Negative Bacteremia.
CASP congratulates the three awardees and looks forward to an ongoing partnership.