All Entries Tagged With: "Infection control"
AORN and 3M team up for hand hygiene initiative
The latest initiative to be announced in the name of preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAI) comes from the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and 3M. The two groups are partnering on the “It’s In Your Hands” campaign to bring to light the best hand hygiene practices for the according to AORN’s recently revised “Recommended Practices for Hand Hygiene in the Perioperative Setting.”
The campaign also seeks to involve nurses around the country by inviting them to share their creativity through a YouTube video contest. Nurses can enter videos via YouTube from December 1, 2009 through January 18, 2010. The short videos should address proper hand hygiene techniques for the operative setting that comply with the revised AORN practices, as well as address the topic from both an educational and fun standpoint.
During the week of February 1, the final three videos, as chosen by a panel of AORN Recommended Practices Committee members, will be displayed on the AORN Web site. Visitors to the Web site will be able to vote on their favorite video until February 22. The nurses behind the video voted to be number one will receive up to three free registrations to the AORN Annual Congress, paid for by a 3M grant. More information about the contest will be posted at www.aorn.org after December 1.
HHS awards $17 million to projects dedicated to preventing healthcare-associated infections
Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it awarded $17 million to specific projects in the name of fighting healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Of the total award, $8 million will specifically fund the national expansion of the Keystone Project, a program that successfully reduced the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in Michigan hospitals within 18 months, saving 1,500 lives. The coordination of the program in all 50 states is being run through the American Hospital Association’s Health Research & Educational Trust. Last year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality expanded the Keystone Project to 10 states.
The remaining $9 million will be spent on strategies to reduce other HAIs. In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS will fund projects that will investigate methods for:
- Reducing Clostridium difficile infections through a regional hospital collaborative.
- Reducing the overuse of antibiotics by primary care clinicians treating patients in ambulatory and long-term care settings.
- Evaluating two ways to eliminate MRSA in ICUs.
- Improving the measurement of the risk of infections after surgery.
- Identifying national-, regional- and state-level rates of HAIs that are acquired in the acute care setting.
- Reducing infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase-producing organisms by applying recently developed recommendations from CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee.
- Standardizing antibiotic use in long-term care settings (two projects).
- Implementing teamwork principles for frontline health care providers.
I see the Keystone Project as one of the major successes in recent years in the patient safety world. Not only does it reduce the chance for patient harm from an HAI, but it reduces the excessive amount of money that is spent on HAIs each year—a $6.5 billion expenditure. There are lots of patient safety standards out there, but this project has guided facilities in lowering CLABSI rates by using succinct steps with an emphasis on building a culture of safety and top-down leadership engagement.
Has your hospital become involved yet in this project?
Another reason to celebrate October: Next week is International Infection Prevention Week
The worldwide healthcare community will be observing International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW) next week, from October 18-24. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), which spearheads the effort in the U.S., is urging all states and Congress to recognize the week as a way of bringing attention to the work that infection preventionists do and the toll that infections take on patients in many healthcare settings.
The theme for IIPW 2009 is “Infection Prevention is Everyone’s Business.” In conjunction with this theme, APIC will be offering a couple of Webinars with special theme days during that week:
- Tuesday, October 20: Collaboration
- Wednesday, October 21: Hand hygiene
- Thursday, October 22: Surgical site infections/ operating room safety
Additionally, the group will announce the winner of the first annual Healthcare Administrator Award, which will be given to a healthcare executive who has demonstrated continuing support for infection prevention at his or her facility. The announcement, which kicks off the observance of IIPW, will take place at a ceremony on Friday, October 16, during a live Webcast at 1 pm Eastern time. Specific APIC chapters located in New York City, Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, and St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN, will be hosting their own satellite events in conjunction with Friday’s announcement.
Is your hospital doing anything to honor IIPW?
APIC urges healthcare facilities to require staff vaccinations
More news about the flu today- whether that’s H1N1 or the seasonal flu.
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) urged healthcare organizations to mandate that staff members in direct contact with patients be vaccinated during the upcoming flu season. The group made its recommendation earlier this week as predictions continued to surface about the number of Americans who may be infected with the H1N1 virus during the upcoming flu season. Last week a presidential panel estimated that up to half of the U.S. population could become infected, and 1.8 million people could be hospitalized, resulting in up to 90,000 deaths. APIC issued a similar recommendation during the 2008-2009 flu season.
APIC issued a similar recommendation during the 2008-2009 flu season. Currently rates of healthcare provider vaccination hover at the 42% mark, which has not budged much in the last ten years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as APIC, recommend that all healthcare workers in direct contact with patients get a flu vaccination as a means of keeping patients safe. Some staff members employed at private organizations see mandatory vaccination requirements as infringements on privacy.
Has your facility decided to take the “mandatory flu vaccination for employees” rotue? How do you and your fellow staff members feel about this policy?
Vote for your favorite flu prevention commercial in HHS contest
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently put out a call for entries into its contest for a new public service announcement about preventing the spread of the flu. Now you can vote once a day on your favorite commercial out of the finalists chosen by HHS’ expert panel. Some of the clips are funny, some are straight and to the point, but all of them touch on the basics of infection prevention–namely by handwashing and practicing safe sneezing and coughing techniques. Some of the commercials also recommend that viewers get vaccinated for the flu. The commercials are not specifically for preventing the spread of H1N1, but various strains of the flu. Health officials expect the seasonal flu and H1N1 to together pack a decent sized punch–the WHO expects that within two years, one third of the world’s population will have caught the H1N1 virus. Certainly the messages contained in these videos could apply to preventing both types of the flu (although currently, only certain sectors of the population are being flagged to receive the H1N1 vaccine).
Voters have until September 16 to visit HHS’ YouTube channel and click the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icons on each of the finalists. The winner of the contest receives a $2,500 prize! This is a great way to get your fellow staff members into reminding patients about flu prevention techniques. So, vote on your favorite, mine is the clip below. Although it’s a serious topic, I think that humor usually connects viewers with a subject more so than just straight facts.
AHRQ launches HAI information Web site
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality launched a Web page on Friday full of resources and information about preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAI). The site pulls together tools and data from many different resources, including itself, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Health and Human Services’ National Action Plan on HAIs. The site also contains links to other groups and resource material in which providers may be interested.
Lancet op-ed says checklists are good, but not healthcare’s savior
In the past couple of years, much has been made of the use of checklists in the medical field to bring about better patient outcomes and keep patients safe. The most successful project to date that used checklists was the Keystone project in Michigan which used evidence-based methods to sharply reduce the central line infection rate in more than 100 ICUs in that state.
A new op-ed from The Lancet says that while this project showed how a checklist could be used to reduce infection, it was not simply the checklist that accounted for the project’s success. Many other factors worked together with the use of a checklist to reduce the infection rate; since the story was made public through the media, however, most of the project’s success has been attributed to using a checklist. The authors of the op-ed, Charles Bosk, Mary Dixon-Woods, Christine Goeschel, and Peter Pronovost, suggest that using this idea, that checklists are a simple solution to many patient safety problems, actually puts more patients’ safety at risk because of the lack of understanding of the many other factors that made this project a success.
The authors discuss the many factors that were a part of the project’s success: a commitment from each hospital’s leadership team, hours of research and learning on the part of the team leaders identified by hospital leaders, months of meetings to hash out the best plan for moving forward, data collection and reporting on the part of infection control practitioners, and finally the cheklist as a means of keeping team members on track and fostering a good culture of safety.
Additionally, the op-ed’s authors bring up the point that not all problems can be solved even partially by using a checklist–it’s just better suited for some issues and not others.
You can read the full op-ed here (free registration may be required). It’s an interesting take on an idea that’s been well publicized and praised in the past couple of years.
Joint Commission sets new challenge for 2009-2010 flu season
In a follow up to its first ever successful Flu Vaccination Challenge, the Joint Commission has launched another challenge for the upcoming 2009-2010 flu season. The goal of the Flu Vaccination Challenge was to increase vaccination among healthcare workers to a rate of 43% or higher. That rate was based on a survey of healthcare workers from 2005-2006 about flu vaccination rates. Today the results of last season’s challenge were announced and 94% of participating hospitals met the goal, with 1.1 million healthcare workers being vaccinated.
For the next Flu Vaccination Challenge, The Joint Commission is asking healthcare facilities to push their staff members to be vaccinated at rates of 60,75, 0r 90%, depending on the vaccination rate for the facility was during the 2008-2009 season. The challenge is also being extended this year to healthcare workers in long term care and ambulatory settings.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that all healthcare workers be vaccinated for the seasonal flu.
I’m curious- did any of your facilities participate in this challenge? How did you encourage your staff members to get vaccinated? The challenge is only for the seasonal flu, as opposed to the H1N1 virus, but I wonder if any sort of requirements concerning H1N1 vaccination will be addressed in the future?
You can find out more about this year’s challenge at www.fluvaccinationchallenge.com.
Stanford Hospital trials drive-through ED
Saw this article in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog on Friday, thought it would make for some good Monday morning discussion. Stanford Hospital in California has tried out a drive-through emergency department (ED). The test was to see how treating patients in their cars would work, the thought being that if a pandemic or bio-terrorist attack occurs, keeping contagious patients away from the rest of the hospital’s population would reduce the likelihood of transmission.
In June, the hospital conducted a pilot test during which 50 fake patients drove up and were treated in their cars. The test worked–in fact patients’ wait times were cut by 1.5 hours. and doctors reported that they were able to adequately treat patients. Patients who were very sick would be treated first, and patients were kept aware of wait times by tuning into a radio station in the area. The hospital said it would use this method if a great number of patients come down with H1N1.
I thought this idea was kind of kooky at first, but it does make sense for preventing the spread of the flu. Would your hospital ever consider orchestrating something like this?
Former CO surgical tech held after hep C outbreak
Authorities say thousands of hospital patients in Colorado may have been exposed to hepatitis C after a former surgical technician allegedly stole drugs from patients, injected herself with them, and allowed the dirty needles to be reused. Kristen Diane Parker, 26, was ordered held without bail yesterday by a federal magistrate who called her a danger to the community, the New York Times reported.
Ten former patients at Rose Medical Center in Denver, where Parker was employed, have tested positive for hepatitis C, which affects liver function. State and hospital officials want to test about 4,700 patients who had surgery at Rose Medical Center from October 2008 to April 2009, when Parker worked there, and an additional 1,200 patients treated at Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, where she worked from May to June.
None of the confirmed hepatitis cases have been tied yet to Parker, who told police that she believes she contracted the disease by sharing heroin needles. She claimed she only found out she was sick last month after the investigation started.
Parker could face up to life in prison under federal consumer product tampering laws if serious injury resulted from her actions. According to court documents and her own statements to police, Parker removed syringes full of the painkiller fentanyl from surgical trays and replaced them with syringes (some previously used by her, sometimes not) full of saline solution. She has not entered a plea in the case, but expressed remorse in her videotaped statement.
CDC officials are investigating Parker’s work schedule and the genetic fingerprint of her hepatitis strain, but they say no evidence of poor procedures in allowing inappropriate reuse of syringes was found at either facility that could explain the outbreak.
