SASNY — “Save Antibiotic Strength New York”

Through a state Department of Health-funded grant, the Health Plan Association and several health plans partnered with professional medical organizations and the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) to develop the Save Antibiotic Strength New York (SASNY) campaign.  The purpose of the project was to educate the public and health care professional community about the problem of drug resistant bacteria and to reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics.  Complicating the problem is the fact that physicians are often faced with diagnostic uncertainty that makes it very difficult to definitively rule out a bacterial component to an infection.  In its effort to educate health care professionals and the public and raise awareness of the problem, the SASNY project developed a Web site (www.sasny.org) that offers numerous materials and resources for physicians and their patients about viruses, bacteria and antibiotic resistance.

The project also produced a CD Rom “tool kit” packed with resources designed to assist physicians with diagnosis and patient education about when antibiotics are effective (against bacteria) and when they are not (against viruses).  The CD Rom tool kit features information about:

• Practice tips and guidelines for diagnosing and treating Pharyngitis (strep throat) and Bronchitis;
• Patient education materials, including CDC and New York State Department of Health fact sheets and “viral prescription pads”;
• Printable office posters and flyers; and
• Summary and other materials on the principles of appropriate antibiotic use. 

The tool kits were mailed to more than 16,000 primary care physicians in New York in time for the cold and flu season.  To help determine the effectiveness of the educational effort, members of the SASNY coalition did a comparison of diagnosis and prescription patterns. 

The following health plans and organizations participated in the SASNY initiative:

• Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan (CDPHP)
• Empire BlueCross and BlueShield
• Health Net
• HIP Health Plan of New York
• Independent Health
• MVP Health Care
• Oxford Health Plans
• Vytra Health Plans
• Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare
• New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine
• New York State Academy of Family Physicians
• New York Health Plan Association Council