Given time, bacteria will develop resistance to antibiotics. However, overuse and misuse of antibiotics is contributing to the speed and spread of antibiotic resistance.

The Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Children's Hospital is dedicated to working with patients, parents, healthcare providers and researchers to counter what many experts say is the world's most pressing public health problem.

Relying on a core team of physicians and pharmacists, the Vanderbilt Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (VASP) seeks to ensure optimum use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Working together, we can:

• improve patient outcomes
• reduce antimicrobial resistance
• reduce healthcare costs

The program uses and evidence-based approaches to optimize antimicrobial prescribing, including:

• monitoring of antimicrobial use and resistance
• formulary restriction of targeted antimicrobials
• creation and implementation of order sets and clinical pathways
• feedback and recommendations to pharmacists and clinicians
• patient and provider education

Our program works collaboratively with the adult antimicrobial stewardship program at Vanderbilt and the clinical microbiology laboratory.

Stewardship Guidance

• 2023 VCH Pediatric Antibiogram
• Antibiotic Prophylaxis by Surgical Procedure
• Antibiotic Drug Shortage
• Beta-Lactam Cross-Reactivity Chart
• CSF Lab Volumes
• Duration of Therapy Table
• ETT Culture Algorithm
• Gram Negative Resistance Markers and Preferred Treatment Options
• Interpretation of Rapid Blood Culture Diagnostic
• IV Antibiotic Dosing
• NICU UTI Management
• Pediatric Organ Transplant Policies and Protocols
• PO Antibiotic Dosing
• Procalcitonin Guidance
• Recommended Blood Culture Volumes by Weight
• Restricted Antimicrobials 2022
• VCH Pediatric Perioperative Surgical Antimicrobial REDOSING
• Wright Service Learning Resources
• Antimicrobial Prophylaxis by Organism in Pediatric Transplant Patients
• Pediatric Hospital Medicine Clinical Practice Guidelines
  • Acute Gastroenteritis
  • Acute Pancreatitis
  • Autoimmune Encephalitis
  • Bronchiolitis
  • Brown Recluse
  • Central Line with Fever
  • Community Acquired Pneumonia
  • Deep Neck Infection
  • Febrile Young Infant
  • MIS-C
  • Musculoskeletal Infection
  • Sepsis
  • Urinary Tract Infection
  • Ventricular Shunt Malfunctions or Infections

VCH Pediatric Infectious Diseases Treatment Algorithms and Guidelines

Please click here to view and/or download the VCH Pediatric Infectious Diseases treatment algorithms and guidelines.

COVID Resources

• COVID Vaccination Following MIS-C
• Outpatient Therapy for Mild to Moderate COVID in Children
• Guidelines to Diagnosis and Management of MIS-C

ASP Newsletters

Click here to view and/or download the recent ASP newsletters.

Learn More about Antimicrobial Resistance:

• CDC: Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance

Other Online Resources:

• CDC: Antibiotic Awareness Week
• WHO: Antimicrobial Resistance
• Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs
• Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship

Research from the Team:

• Agreement Between Two Procalcitonin Assays in Hospitalized Children
• Analysis of a High-Prescribing State's 2016 Outpatient Antiobiotic Prescriptions: Implications for Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions
• Antibiotic Shortages in Pediatrics
• Impact of a Rapid Blood Culture Diagnostic Test in a Children's Hospital Depends on Gram-positive vs. Gram-negative Organism and Day vs. Night Shift
• Incidence of Acute Kidney Injury Among Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Patients Receiving Vancomycin in Combination with Piperacillin/Tazobactam or Cefepime
• Pediatric antimicrobial stewardship practices at discharge: A national survey
• Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the United States: Changing Epidemiology, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges, and Areas for Future Research
• Population-based Assessment of Patient and Provider Characteristics Influencing Pediatric Outpatient Antibiotic Use in a High Antibiotic-Prescribing State
• Risk Factors for Adverse Events in Children Receiving Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy

Meet the Team
 

Ritu Banerjee, MD, PhD

Sophie Katz, MD

Jessica Gillon, PharmD, BCIDP

Kathryn Garguilo, MSN, RN

Gale Thomas