A strategy for effective administrative control of antimicrobial therapy in the surgical intensive care unit: a retrospective pilot study.

Objective: To evaluate a strategy for effective administrative control of targeted antimicrobial therapy in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Materials and methods. The study included 3522 patients who were treated in ICU No. 1 in the period 2022 to 2023. The first group (control), treatment period 2022, included 1764 patients. The second group (research), treatment period 2023, included 1758 patients. In both groups, the use of antimicrobial drugs (AMP) was carried out in accordance with the antibacterial therapy control strategy (ASCT); in group 2, systemic administrative control was additionally carried out in the form of the use of the “Effective Hospital” program and a developed analytical system with monitoring the financial stability of the unit, aimed at daily monitoring of operating activities. A comparative analysis of the frequency of use of various classes of antimicrobial agents, the incidence of infectious complications, mortality rates and financial costs between groups was performed. Results. There was a significant decrease in the consumption of AMPs of the carbapenem group from 8194 vials in 2022 to 6577 vials in 2023, which was a decrease of 19.7%; a decrease in the consumption of tetracycline group AMPs in 2023 compared to 2022, from 2338 bottles to 1581 bottles, which amounted to 32.4%; reduction in the consumption of vancomycin and linezolid in 2023 compared to 2022 from 562 vials to 313 vials, which amounted to 44.3%. There was a decrease in the incidence of VAP from 59.3 (57.6; 62.9) in 2022 to 48.1 (38.65; 61.9) units in 2023, which amounted to 10.8% (p = 0.053). The increase in the frequency of deaths from 10.9% (9.1; 12.4) in 2022 to 11.5% (10.5; 12.7) in 2023 did not have significant differences (p = 0.67). The total expenditure on AMP in 2023 significantly decreased by 22.3%, which allowed saving 1,477,205.53 rubles (p = 0.012). Conclusion. The use of a daily strategy of administrative control of operational activities and the use of antimicrobial therapy in the ICU can reduce the costs of expensive antimicrobial agents, reduce the incidence of nosocomial infectious and inflammatory complications without changing overall mortality.