Lyn-li Lim1
1 Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat to human health, driven by excessive antimicrobial use. Australian residential aged care services (RACS) are recognised as an important setting for AMR, with reported rate of AMR higher than in hospital or other community settings. Urinary tract infection (UTI) the most common reason for antibiotic prescribing. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has identified Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) as an important area for RACS and is offering “To Dip or Not to Dip” (TDONTD) as a quality improvement intervention to improve UTI management and antibiotic prescribing to support RACS AMS activities. The Commission launched TDONTD resources in late 2021 and has actively promoted it to providers.
An evaluation of TDONTD completed in July 2022 found that the intervention successfully improved management of UTI, reduced overprescribing for UTI and unnecessary prescribing for asymptomatic bacteriuria. TDONTD was delivered by service nurse champions, working together with their pharmacist. Nurse champions found TDONTD’s resources for education and training highly useful and that these were well-accepted by staff. They found the clinical pathway easy to use as a “best practice on a page”. The intervention was an opportunity to align facility policies and processes around dipstick testing to best practice. In late 2023, the Commission plans to release updated TDONTD resources, and further tools and resources to support AMS programs in RACS.
Biography
Lyn-li Lim is an Infectious Diseases physician at VICNISS, at the Doherty Institute and a consultant with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. She is driven to solve problems in a way that improves people’s experience of the health and aged care system, and using her skills to make a real difference.
She has an interest in healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial stewardship, with a focus on promoting quality use of antimicrobials and implementation of evidence-based practice.She is involved in the research, development of clinical guidelines and educational information in the areas of infection prevention and control and infections.