Monitoring of Antibiotic Use and Bacterial Resistance in Healthcare Facilities. Spares Project. 2023 Results
The monitoring of antibiotic use and bacterial resistance to antibiotics in healthcare facilities, a task entrusted to the SPARES initiative since 2018, contributes to the national policy on controlling antibiotic resistance by promoting the appropriate use of antibiotics and preventing cross-transmission. Its objectives are to enable each HC to describe and analyze its consumption and bacterial resistance in comparison with a comparable group of HCs, as well as to produce indicators at the regional and national levels. However, in 2023, due to the obsolescence of the Consores® data collection and analysis tool, the data collection methodology was modified. Data collection was limited to aggregated data enabling the calculation of key indicators, including those derived from the 2022–2025 national strategy for infection prevention and antibiotic resistance. The consumption of systemic antibiotics in class J01 of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification, rifampicin, oral imidazoles, and fidaxomicin, dispensed during inpatient stays, were expressed in defined daily doses (DDD) and reported relative to activity according to the World Health Organization’s national recommendations (ATC-DDD system, 2023). Resistance rates were calculated by considering "resistant" strains isolated from diagnostic specimens after duplicates were excluded by the laboratories of the participating healthcare facilities. The 746 healthcare facilities participating in the antibiotic consumption surveillance program accounted for 38% of hospital days (HD) – according to the 2023 Annual Statistics on Healthcare Facilities (SAE) – and had consumed 312 DDD/1,000 HD, a 9.5% increase compared to 2019, with broad-spectrum antibiotics accounting for 34.4%. Consumption ranged from 38 DDD/1,000 HD in mental health facilities to 581 DDD/1,000 HD in military hospitals. Fluoroquinolone consumption has steadily declined since 2012, reaching 24 DDD/1,000 patient-days in 2023. The 229 nursing homes (EHPADs) that responded had consumed 36 DDD/1,000 patient-days. The 551 healthcare facilities participating in the surveillance of bacterial resistance to antibiotics accounted for 33% of patient-days in France in 2023. The incidence rate of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae was 0.70 per 1,000 patient-days, and that of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae was 0.13 positive samples per 1,000 patient-days. Regarding strains isolated from blood cultures, 2.1% of the 4,005 K. pneumoniae strains were carbapenem-resistant, and 8.8% of Staphylococcus aureus strains were methicillin-resistant. Due to the collection method, which generates an additional workload for healthcare facilities, the sample of participants differs from previous years, with a higher proportion of inpatients from facilities primarily providing short-stay care. Caution is therefore warranted when interpreting the 2023 data in comparison to previous years. For healthcare facilities, monitoring and analyzing antibiotic use and bacterial resistance data allows them to assess their situation, compare themselves with others, and identify trends and areas for improvement. These data must be supplemented by evaluations of prescribing practices as well as practices for preventing cross-transmission.
Publishing year: 2024
Collection: Monitoring data
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