The impact of the establishment of a new Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) clinical pharmacy service in a rural hospital in Austria

Antimicrobial stewardship groups ensure the safe and prudent use of antibiotics, decrease antimicrobial resistance, lower costs of antimicrobials in hospital settings and improve patient safety in terms of prescribing plausibility. Significant success of the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programmes have been shown in studies across the world 6. It is important to highlight this issue not only because of the current alarming resistance situation 7 but also to encourage Austrian stakeholders and politicians to start to implement such programmes on a larger scale all across Austria.