Trim D14-30686
National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS)
Rural Focus for 2014
To coincide with this year’s Antibiotic Awareness Week (17-23 November), the Melbourne
Health NH&MRC Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship, will again be coordinating the
National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS).
The survey is supported by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
(the Commission). Effective antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is a key plank of the
Commission’s national work to prevent and contain antimicrobial resistance.
This year, the NAPS team will provide additional clinical support for sites without specialist
infectious diseases advice or an antimicrobial pharmacist. Support might include training for
auditors and/or assistance with assessment of antimicrobial prescriptions. This assistance
may be particularly important in rural and regional settings. If you would like help planning
the survey, please contact the NAPS team as soon as possible.
All acute health care services are encouraged to participate in the survey. The NAPS
provides a valuable opportunity to audit local antimicrobial prescribing patterns; provide
feedback to prescribers to enable review of practice; and, enables the opportunity for
continuing quality improvement. Benchmarking functionality will be offered to participating
hospitals, subject to local approval processes.
The results from the NAPS can be used as evidence to support the antimicrobial
stewardship criterion of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards.
The Centre recommends that health care services conduct the NAPS prior to Antibiotic
Awareness Week so results will be available to enable local feedback and discussion during
the week. A number of improvements to the website are being made for early October;
based on feedback from the 2013 NAPS.
Registration is open to acute care hospitals of all sizes, public and private, across the
country. Services that wish to participate in benchmarking are also advised to contact the
NAPS coordinating team at NAPS@vicniss.org.au.
The Commission encourages your health service to participate in this important safety and
quality initiative which provides detailed information about prescribing practice to inform AMS
and improve antimicrobial prescribing practice and patient outcomes.
For more information, please go to the NAPS website www.naps.vicniss.org.au, or contact
the team at NAPS@vicniss.org.au.