Organisational strategy to improve Antimicrobial Stewardship within CVS

In the 2025 Knowledge Awards, the CVS Clinical Improvement Team were recognised for their organisation-wide initiative to sustain an effective antimicrobial stewardship programme, with a particular focus on reducing the use of highest priority critically important antibiotics (HPCIAs). Guided by the CVS Clinical Governance Framework, which promotes clinical improvement through psychological safety, human factors, and systems thinking, the team fostered inclusive leadership and accountability by bringing together colleagues from across the organisation to collaboratively identify and implement meaningful improvements.

Key takeaways

• Empowering teams drives sustainable change: By involving practice teams in every stage, the Clinical Improvement Team fostered ownership, accountability, and meaningful engagement in antimicrobial stewardship efforts.
• Sharing data enables targeted improvement: The introduction of a digital dashboard allowed practices to access and reflect on their prescribing data, helping identify areas for improvement without imposing rigid targets.
• Human factors and team culture are key to understanding prescribing: The Clinical Governance Framework emphasised psychological safety, systems thinking, and inclusive leadership, creating an environment where clinical improvement could thrive. Tools like the Contributory Factors Checklist helped teams explore the real-world influences on prescribing decisions, enabling more context-aware and effective interventions.

Download the PDF and read the case example to get deeper insights into the methods and outcomes, and to apply these strategies in your own practice to enhance patient safety and care.