Evaluation of outcomes of intravenous to oral antimicrobial conversion initiatives: a literature review.

Inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents could result in antimicrobial resistance that could impact clinical cure outcomes (by increasing morbidity in terms of increased adverse events and risk of secondary and hospital-acquired infections and mortality) and increase costs to health care institutions. Thus, appropriate antimicrobial use has become vital for balancing patient safety and costs and is therefore a focus for health care institutions. This is often achieved through efforts of antimicrobial stewardship programs that include intravenous to oral conversion initiatives with clinical pharmacists playing an instrumental role in their development and implementation with medical staff approval. However, the delivery and effectiveness of these programs are quite variable. Therefore, for guiding the successful delivery and evaluations of these programs in the future, the objective of this literature review is to document the impact of intravenous to oral conversion programs in terms of clinical and economic outcomes at various institutions worldwide along with the pharmacist's role in these programs.