The 5×5 Antimicrobial Audit is a sustainable model of audit, intervention and feedback designed to improve the quality of antimicrobial prescribing in targeted areas of clinical practice.

The methodology of the 5×5 Antimicrobial Audit involves ongoing data collection of small sample sizes, with trained auditors required to answer up to 5 questions in 5 or more patients per week.

The CEC, as part of the Quality Use of Antimicrobials in Healthcare Program have provided all the resources to introduce this audit into your practice. The audit involves data collection on 5 questions for at least 5 patients per week and has been designed to be incorporated into an auditors regular duties and chart reviews. The aim is to provide continuous, sustainable information that can be fed back to prescribers and other stakeholders regularly. This allows for interventions to promote best practice use of antimicrobials.

The CEC have provided all the resources needed to conduct the audit including the audit tool, data collection forms, presentations, posters and letters.

The CEC provides a range of resources to promote antimicrobial stewardship. Audits for antimicrobial use in intensive care, indicators for quality use of medicines related to antimicrobials along with detailed information on how to set up and improve antimicrobial stewardship programs.