What is the purpose of an antibiogram in infection prevention and control practice?

• A. Summarizes local antimicrobial susceptibility patterns to guide empiric therapy
• B. Tracks hospital-acquired infections
• C. Rates hand hygiene compliance
• D. Documents vaccine efficacy

Answer: (A)

An antibiogram is a local snapshot that compiles antimicrobial susceptibility results from pathogens isolated in a facility, showing how effective different antibiotics are against those organisms. This patterns summary helps clinicians choose empiric therapy likely to be effective before culture results return, tailoring initial treatment to local resistance trends. It also supports antibiotic stewardship by avoiding unnecessarily broad or ineffective choices and by tracking changes in resistance over time. It isn’t used to track hospital-acquired infections, measure hand hygiene compliance, or assess vaccine efficacy; those functions come from other surveillance and quality metrics.