CVS Group is holding an Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy Day to refresh the approach to improving the responsible use of antibiotics within its practices
CVS Holds Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy Day To Refresh Its Approach In Practice
5 months ago 
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CVS Group is holding an Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy Day on 22 November in Bristol to refresh the approach to improving the responsible use of antibiotics within its practices.
Attended by over 30 practice colleagues including vets and nurses, regional directors and CVS’ clinical leadership team, the strategy day will aim to identify what is working well in practice, explore current clinical and site challenges, and prioritise new areas for improvement.
The strategy day will cover two important streams which contribute to good antimicrobial stewardship; the appropriate prescribing of antibiotics and infection control to reduce the occurrence of nosocomial infections in practice. The group will also investigate; how to create a supportive team culture - looking at teamwork, inclusivity and patient safety; along with identifying any key obstructions to improvement. There will also be a demonstration of how to put CVS’ new Clinical Governance Framework into practice to support good antimicrobial stewardship.
Following the CVS Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy Day priorities will be collated and specific plans and solutions developed to keep the group at the forefront of antimicrobial stewardship within the veterinary profession.
Angie Rayner, Quality Improvement Director at CVS said: “The protection of antimicrobials is vital for our future. We want to be good stewards. We have made good progress to date but we want to know where we should be going next.
“This strategy day is about understanding views on current approaches and what is working well. Equally we want to find out what problems our clinical teams are facing - in order to be able to tackle these head on.
“We will continue with our approach of empowering practice teams with the data and knowledge they need to make changes that are appropriate to their setting. We believe it is critical that we actively seek feedback from our colleagues who are on the frontline every day to have a meaningful effect on what we do. Such listening is vitally important to quality improvement and this input will help inform the direction of future decisions.
“We hope the day will help us reset our direction, reshape our strategy and outline future priorities for antimicrobial prescribing and infection control. Long term it will make it easier for our colleagues to do the right thing.”
The CVS Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy Day follows the issuing of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Survey to all CVS colleagues in mid-November. Results from this survey have formed the basis of the strategy day agenda, helping to identify and prioritise relevant discussion points for our teams.
To date CVS has made significant progress on improving the use of antibiotics within its practices. It has introduced a programme looking at the Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HPCIAs). Here the company updated its group-wide prescribing guidelines, and created a digital dashboard with monthly practice prescribing data - so each practice could reflect on decision-making, monitor trends and measure progress. As a result CVS has seen a 20% decrease in HPCIAs prescriptions in two years.
CVS Group operates across small animal, farm animal, equine, laboratories and crematoria, with over 500 veterinary practices, referral centres and sites in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands. In the last five years the company has invested nearly £80 million in its sites, facilities and equipment, in addition to industry leading training and support, to give the best possible care to animals.
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