From the AIA's new Infection Control Risk Assessment to the JCAHO's emphasis on infection control, your facility's infection control initiatives have never been under more scrutiny. Briefings on Infection Control is a 12-page monthly resource that was created specifically to help you save time complying with the new infection control regulations and combating the spread of infectious diseases in your hospital. Not only will you know about the latest changes and updates, but you'll also receive the step-by-step strategies and tools to comply!
May 2008 (Volume 6, Issue 5)
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Take a team approach to target, mitigate antibiotic resistance at your facility Antibiotic-resistant organisms can cause problems for ICPs. For each resistant organism that appears, ICPs must respond accordingly to contain it, says B. Joseph Guglielmo Jr., PharmD, professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of California-San Francisco. It's also a huge problem for healthcare in general. With a limited number of new antibiotics on the horizon, particularly those that target gram-negative bacteria, there is growing concern about this issue.
Although ICPs may not be able to handle this issue alone, there are several strategies they can use to alleviate the problem at their facilities, say experts. Antimicrobial drug management program fights to reverse increasing resistance rates All healthcare facilities are concerned about the growing number of antibiotic-resistant organisms. The University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center is addressing its concern by establishing a formal antimicrobial drug management program to help stop problematic trends.
The program uses a team of experts to review antimicrobial therapies prescribed by physicians and offer recommendations or ask physicians to change course when prescriptions conflict with established best practices, says B. Joseph Guglielmo Jr., PharmD, professor of clinical pharmacy at the UCSF School of Pharmacy and the creator of the program. Prevent your fast-paced, high-volume ER from becoming a hotbed of infectious activity A hospital's ER is full of opportunities for infectious disease transmission. In no other area of the hospital are you more likely to find an active TB patient, a patient with influenza, and an otherwise healthy patient with a sprained ankle sitting next to each other in a waiting room.
IC challenges in the ER are further compounded by the issue of overcrowding. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the patient population of Baton Rouge (LA) General Hospital's ER swelled, as displaced New Orleans residents, who were forced to leave their primary care physicians behind, came in seeking medical attention, says Connie DeLeo, the hospital's IC coordinator. Avoid reimbursement, accreditation concerns by preventing catheter-associated infections Starting in October, under new Medicare regulations, hospitals will no longer receive higher payments for the additional costs associated with treating patients for preventable C-BSIs. Implementing best practices to prevent these infections is included among The Joint Commission's (formerly JCAHO) list of potential 2009 National Patient Safety Goals, currently under review.
The good news? Healthcare organizations can take some simple steps to prevent such infections. Consider the results at Regions Hospital, a 427-bed, full-service private hospital in St. Paul, MN: Between 2005 and 2007, the hospital reduced its C-BSI infection rate from 3.3 infections per 1,000 line days to 1.7 per 1,000 line days-
a 48.5% reduction.
