Antimicrobial Resistance For Health Care Providers

Actions for Florida Health Care Providers

Your patients can get infections when receiving health care, called healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). HAIs are commonly caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens (harmful germs), which may lead to sepsis or death. People can also get antibiotic-resistant infections in their community, for example, gonorrhea, tuberculosis (TB), or foodborne infections.

Take the following actions to help protect your patients and people in the community from antibiotic-resistant infections.

Help Prevent Infections and their Spread

Protect yourself and your family from antibiotic resistance by

• Follow infection prevention and control guidelines (including screening at-risk patients when indicated).
• Ask patients if they have recently received care in another facility or traveled to another country
• Check if your patients have received recommended vaccines
• Alert the receiving facility when transferring patient who are colonized or infected with antibiotic-resistant germs and use a transfer form
• Educate patients on ways to prevent spread

Improve Antibiotic Prescribing

• Follow clinical and treatment guidelines.
• Consider fungal infections for patients with respiratory infections that do not response to antibiotics
• Watch for sepsis
• Ensure that appropriate diagnostic tests are used to guide antibiotic therapy, including correct drug, dose and duration

Be Alert and Take Action

• Ensure you are notified by lab immediately when antibiotic-resistant germs are identified in your patients
• Inform patients and families if they have an antibiotic-resistant infection, as well as sexual partners when appropriate
• Know when to report cases and submit resistant isolated to the health department to help identify unusual resistance or treatment failures

Urgent Threats These germs are public health threats that require urgent and aggressive action:
	Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter
	Candida auris
	Clostridioides difficile
	Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
	Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae

CDC Resource:
2019 Antibiotic Resistance Threat in the United States