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. 2023 Mar 1;8(1):90-93.
doi: 10.3138/jammi-2022-0033. eCollection 2023 Mar.

The Alberta Telestewardship Network: Building a platform to enable capacity building in antimicrobial stewardship-results of an initial pilot study

Dana Jelinski  1 , Danielle Julien  1 , Sandra Cook  2 , Sabrina Harris  3 , Timothy Logan  4 , Deana Sabuda  5 , Deonne Dersch-Mills  5 , Catherine Wong  6 , Sara Webster  6 , Cora Constantinescu  7 , Holly Hoang  8   9 , John Conly  1   10   11   12   13   14
Affiliations

The Alberta Telestewardship Network: Building a platform to enable capacity building in antimicrobial stewardship-results of an initial pilot study

Dana Jelinski et al. J Assoc Med Microbiol Infect Dis Can. .

Abstract
in English, French

Background: Resources to improve antimicrobial stewardship (AS) are limited, but a telestewardship platform can enable capacity building and scalability. The Alberta Telestewardship Network (ATeleNet) was designed to focus on outreach across the province of Alberta, Canada, and facilitate AS activities.

Methods: Outreach occurred virtually between pharmacists and physicians in hospital and long-term care settings throughout Alberta via secure, enterprise video conferencing software on both desktop and mobile devices. We used a quantitative questionnaire adapted from the telehealth usability questionnaire to capture the health provider's experience during each session. The questionnaire consisted of 39 questions, and a 5-point Likert scale was used to assess the degree of agreement and collate responses into a descriptive analysis.

Results: A total of 33 pilot consultations were completed between July 6, 2020 and December 15, 2021. The majority (22, 85%) of respondents agreed that video conference-based virtual sessions are an acceptable means to provide health care and that they were able to express themselves effectively to other health care professionals (23, 88%). Respondents agreed the system was simple to use (23, 96%), and that they could become productive quickly using the system (23, 88%). Overall, 24 (92%) respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the virtual care platform.

Conclusions: We implemented and evaluated a telehealth consultation and collaborative care service between AS providers at multiple centres. AHS has since prioritized similar workflows, including access to specialists in acute care, as part of their virtual health strategy. Evaluation results will be shared with provincial stakeholders for further strategic planning and deployment.

Historique: Les ressources pour améliorer la gérance antimicrobienne (GA) sont limitées, mais une plateforme de télégérance peut favoriser le renforcement des capacités et l’échelonnabilité. L’Alberta Telestewardship Network (réseau de télégérance de l’Alberta, ou ATeleNet) a été conçu pour mettre l’accent sur le rayonnement dans la province de l’Alberta, au Canada et pour faciliter les activités de GA.

Méthodologie: Le rayonnement s’est produit virtuellement entre des pharmaciens et des médecins d’établissements hospitaliers et d’établissements de soins de longue durée de l’Alberta par logiciel de visioconférence sécurisé sur des ordinateurs de bureau et des appareils mobiles. Les chercheurs ont utilisé un questionnaire quantitatif adapté du questionnaire sur la convivialité de la télésanté pour saisir l’expérience du dispensateur de soins lors de chaque séance. Le questionnaire était composé de 39 questions, et une échelle de Likert de cinq points a permis d’évaluer le degré d’entente et de recueillir les réponses dans une analyse descriptive.

Résultats: Au total, les chercheurs ont effectué 33 consultations pilotes entre le 6 juillet 2020 et le 15 décembre 2021. La majorité des répondants (n = 22, 85 %) ont convenu que les séances en visioconférence représentaient un moyen acceptable de fournir des soins de santé et leur permettaient de s’exprimer avec efficacité auprès des autres professionnels de la santé (n = 23, 88 %). Les répondants ont indiqué que le système était facile à utiliser (n = 23, 96 %), et qu’ils pouvaient vite devenir productifs (n = 23, 88 %). Dans l’ensemble, 24 répondants (92 %) étaient satisfaits ou très satisfaits de la plateforme de soins virtuels.

Conclusions: Les chercheurs ont lancé et évalué une consultation en télésanté et un service de soins coopératifs entre fournisseurs de GA de multiples centres. Depuis, les Services de santé de l’Alberta ont priorisé des processus de travail semblables dans leur stratégie de santé virtuelle, y compris pour l’accès à des spécialistes en soins aigus. Les résultats de l’évaluation seront transmis à des intervenants provinciaux en vue d’une planification et d’un déploiement stratégiques.

Keywords: antimicrobial stewardship; infectious disease; telehealth; telestewardship; virtual care.

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Conflict of interest statement

H Hoang is a member and co-chair of the Covenant Health Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and member of the Alberta Health Services province-wide Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee; J Conly is a member and co-chair of the Alberta Health Services province-wide Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee, and has received grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Pfizer, and WHO, and a peer-reviewed research grant on acute and primary care preparedness for COVID-19 in Alberta, Canada. He is a primary local investigator for the STRIVE S. aureus vaccine randomized controlled trial in vertebral spinal surgery with instrumentation, for which all funding was provided only to the University of Calgary; he is a co-investigator on a WHO-funded study using integrated human factors and ethnography approaches to identify and scale innovative IPC guidance implementation supports in primary care with a focus on low-resource settings and using drone aerial systems to deliver medical supplies and personal protective equipment to remote First Nations communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Conly received accommodation and airfare from the CDC to attend a Think Thank Meeting in 2019. C Constantinescu and D Sabuda are members of the Alberta Health Services province-wide Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. The other authors have nothing to disclose relevant to the contents of this manuscript.

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