Emerging trends in antibiotic use in US hospitals: quality, quantification and stewardship.

Three major trends in antibiotic use in US hospitals have emerged over the last few years: antibiotics as quality metrics, persistent use of different measures of antibiotic consumption and the emergence of antibiotic stewardship programs. Compared with Europe, where approaches are heterogeneous but generally consistent, the USA currently lacks the infrastructure to monitor antibiotic resistance and antibiotic consumption locally. Both have implemented programmatic strategies for prudent antibiotic use. The USA appears to have implemented processes more systematically to measure the quality of antibiotic use.