January 19, 2024
AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine: Improving Antibiotic Use – June 2024
The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) seeks participants for a free, 18-month program beginning in June 2024 to promote appropriate antibiotic use for patients seen via telemedicine.
Two million infections per year are caused by antibiotic resistant organisms, leading to 35,000 deaths per year in the Untied States. Meanwhile, one-third of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions and half of the prescriptions for acute respiratory infections are unnecessary.
AHRQ is recruiting clinics and providers that want to improve antibiotic prescribing. Clinics and providers wanting to improve antibiotic prescribing will receive training and one-on-one expert coaching in diagnosis and treatment via telemedicine.
Benefits of Participation:
- Improve efficiency and patient satisfaction with antibiotic prescribing, using approaches such as scripting for live and patient portal interactions
- Perform better on antibiotic-related quality measures
- Receive continuing education credits (CEUs), continuing medical education credits (CMEs), and American Board of Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification (MOC) points through live and/or self-paced materials
What You Will Learn:
- Learn evidence-based strategies from nationally renowned experts in telemedicine diagnosis and antibiotic prescribing
- Gain dedicated access to free expert consultation
- Providers can receive CMEs, CEUs, and MOCs
- Improve efficiency, using approaches such as scripting for live and patient portal interactions
- Improve patient safety and reduce harm from antibiotic side effects
- Improve patient satisfaction and communication with your patients and their families around appropriate antibiotic use
- Improve performance on antibiotic-related quality measures such as Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures for bronchitis/bronchiolitis, upper respiratory infections, and pharyngitis, and meet Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) criteria from CMS
The deadline to enroll is May 23, 2024
Cost: There is no cost to participate. Participating practices will not receive any payment for participation
Learn More
- Sign up for an informational webinar (scroll down to see a table of dates and times)
- Visit the Join the Program page
- Read frequently asked questions