SUPPORT

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the leading causes of bloodstream infections worldwide and hence cause significant morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Preliminary evidence from non-randomized trials suggests that when an infectious diseases (ID) specialist is involved in a patient’s care and the physician in charge follows ID recommendations improves the quality of care and the outcome of the patients. However, evidence from randomized controlled trials is lacking, which limits the validity of the conclusions. Many countries, including Germany, lack clinical infectious disease specialists. In SUPPORT we assess whether unsolicited telephone infectious disease consultations can improve 30-day all-cause mortality in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.

SUPPORT is a patient-blinded, multicenter, interventional, cluster-randomized, controlled crossover trial conducted in 21 rural hospitals in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany.

DRKS Identifier: DRKS00010135

Publications

Weis S, Hagel S, Schmitz RP, Scherag A, Brunkhorst FM, Forstner C, Löffler B, Pletz MW (2017) Study on the utility of a statewide counselling programme for improving mortality outcomes of patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in Thuringia (SUPPORT): a study protocol of a cluster-randomised crossover trial. BMJ Open 7(4), e013976.

The SUPPORT trial was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; grant 01 EO 1002) via the Jena Center of Sepsis Control and Care.