Summary Carbapenem is an important therapy for serious hospital‐acquired infections and for the care of patients affected by multidrug‐resistant organisms, specifically Acinetobacter baumannii; however, with the global increase of carbapenem‐resistant A. baumannii, this pathogen has significantly threatened public health. Thus, there is a pressing need to better understand this pathogen in order to develop novel treatments and control strategies for dealing with A. baumannii. In this review, we discuss an overview of carbapenem, including its discovery, development, classification and biological characteristics, and its importance in hospital medicine especially in critical care units. We also describe the peculiarity of bacterial pathogen, A. baumannii, including its commonly reported virulence factors, environmental persistence and carbapenem resistance mechanisms. In closing, we discuss various control strategies for overcoming carbapenem resistance in hospitals and for limiting outbreaks. With the appearance of strains that resist carbapenem, the aim of this review is to highlight the importance of understanding this increasingly problematic healthcare‐associated pathogen that creates significant concern in the field of nosocomial infections and overall public health.