New York City Antibiogram
Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent public health threat, and antibiograms are critical tools for identifying and combating the spread of drug-resistant organisms. Antibiograms summarize data about resistance patterns for selected pathogens. Health care providers can use these data, along with their clinical expertise and patient information, to guide selection of initial therapy and reduce inappropriate prescriptions. Antibiograms are therefore an essential component of antimicrobial stewardship programs.
Hospitals and some other inpatient health care centers generate annual antibiograms for bacterial isolates from patients tested and treated at their sites. These facility-specific data can be combined to create regional antibiograms, valuable public health tools that illustrate and allow for monitoring of more widespread trends in antimicrobial resistance. Ambulatory clinics generally do not create their own antibiograms, though an estimated 80-90% of human antibiotic use in the U.S. occurs in the outpatient setting.
To address these gaps in New York City, the Health Department collaborates with a multidisciplinary group of external stakeholders to develop and publish aggregate borough and citywide antibiograms on an annual basis.
If you would like more information or are interested in contributing to the New York City Antibiogram in the future, email ARprevention@health.nyc.gov.
2023 New York City Citywide Antibiogram
The latest New York City antibiogram summarizes the results of antibiotic susceptibility testing for the most commonly encountered bacterial pathogens. Data were combined for 33 health facilities and includes both inpatient and outpatient populations.
The antibiogram data can be viewed on the clinical decision support platform, Firstline. Firstline is available for mobile download for iOS or Android systems, or on the web. Select “NYC Health Department” when prompted to choose a location.
2021 and 2022 New York City Citywide Antibiograms
While the citywide antibiograms can provide insight into regional resistance rates, changes in yearly resistance rates for a given pathogen/antibiotic combination should be interpreted with caution due to variations in facility antibiogram submission.