The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a new web page to help NPs and other health care providers make timely and appropriate decisions regarding antimicrobial prescribing.

Bacterial and fungal organisms can mutate, minimizing or even eliminating the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy. Historically, providing updated information on an organism's susceptibility to various drug therapies was a multistep process that took considerable time, as each organism's susceptibility test interpretive criteria (or "breakpoints") had to be reviewed and updated as needed.

The new web page was created to fulfill the requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act, which authorized the FDA to simultaneously update the breakpoints for all drugs with the same active ingredient. Further streamlining the process, the drug manufacturer will no longer need to revise a product's label to update breakpoints, but can just reference the FDA web page.

To access the new web page, go to http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/DevelopmentResources/ucm4109. NPs should continue to read the entire drug label for complete information on the prescribing of antimicrobials to treat infection.