Incorporating a pharmacy-driven partnership into one children’s hospital’s antimicrobial stewardship plan decreased therapeutic drug monitoring for children administered IV vancomycin without increasing the risk for later kidney injury, according to findings published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

Study researcher Jared Olson, PharmD, an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah, told Infectious Diseases in Children that aggressive monitoring and dosing for patients is “unlikely to increase efficacy or avoid harm, yet result in a large amount of wasted drug, effort and lab draws.”