Combined antibiogram for hospitals with 50+ beds--Alaska, 2002.

Hospital antibiograms are compiled from facility microbiology laboratories and list specific organism-antimicrobial susceptibility combinations. Antibiograms can then be used by facility health care providers to guide choices of antimicrobials for treatment. For a specific time period, antibiograms from different facilities can be aggregated. These summaries are quick and easy to compile and can provide an overview of antimicrobial susceptibility in a region. We aggregated year 2002 antibiograms from nine Alaska hospitals with 50 or more beds. Data presented here suggest that a combined antibiogram can provide a rough summary of susceptibility estimates statewide, and demonstrate trends in decreasing susceptibility, as seen for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. For future antibiogram summaries, other organisms can be added as they gain in relevance or concern, or other antimicrobials added as usage or resistance patterns change.