@phdthesis{quteprints116505,
            year = {2018},
          author = {Sonali A. Coulter},
           title = {An economic evaluation of antimicrobial stewardship programs in metropolitan Australian hospitals},
          school = {Queensland University of Technology},
        keywords = {Antimicrobial Stewardship, Cost-effectiveness, Bloodstream infection, Rapid Diagnostics, Clinical Decision Support system, Economic Evaluation, MALDI-TOF, Hospital, Health Economics, Health resource allocation},
             url = {https://eprints.qut.edu.au/116505/},
             doi = {10.5204/thesis.eprints.116505},
        abstract = {This thesis provides the first economic evaluation of Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) interventions in two Metropolitan Australian Hospitals. AMS interventions are cost-saving from a hospital perspective and are cost-effective particularly if teamed with rapid diagnostics in the microbiology laboratory. The uncertainty in the mortality estimates does not allow for a high level of confidence in the cost-effectiveness decision for policy makers. While mortality is a useful metric, morbidity associated with bloodstream infections due to inappropriate prescribing needs to be collected over a longer period of time to capture the true benefits of AMS interventions.}
}