1 Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Health and Monash University, 85 Commercial Road, Victoria, 3004, Trisha.Peel@monash.edu
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health threat, driven by increasing inappropriate use of antimicrobials. The residential aged care sector is vulnerable to this threat and faces a number of a unique challenges including high infection burden, high prevalence of inappropriate antimicrobial use and AMR in an increasingly frail population with complex care needs. This has driven demand for the development and implementation of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes. The START trial, is a multicentre stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial of AMS in the aged care setting. In this presentation, we will highlight some of the challenges encountered with implementation of an AMS programme in this setting and early lessons learned from the START trial.