Rapid molecular testing supports antimicrobial stewardship programs
Vanderbilt Clinical Laboratories recently implemented VERIGENE® rapid testing for bloodstream infections, the university announced. For all patients whose blood cultures test positive, the team will use molecular diagnostics to quickly identify the causative pathogen, as well as any associated antibiotic resistance markers.
According to George Nelson, an infectious disease expert who runs the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital, “This will help get patients with bloodstream infections out of the hospital sooner. It will get them the best treatment quicker. It will reduce exposure to unnecessary antibiotics and thus to unnecessary adverse events.” In many hospitals using this approach, faster treatment often leads directly to shorter hospital stays and lower healthcare costs.
Typically, the process of identifying the source of a positive blood culture result and testing for antibiotic resistance takes two or three days. With the VERIGENE tests, turnaround time is less than three hours. This dramatic reduction in time allows physicians to get the right drugs to each patient faster — and, just as importantly, avoid prescribing the wrong drugs. That concept is at the heart of antimicrobial stewardship programs, which aim to rein in the growing antibiotic resistance epidemic by eliminating unnecessary use of these powerful medications.
According to Matthew Greene, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt, “The whole beauty of this rapid information is that you can say ‘we know what to move on.’”
