Infections
C4I Infection Control Subgroup
The C4I Infection Control Subgroup has
identified four areas of focus to help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections by patients and employees. The target areas are:
Influenza Immunizations
There are no published guidelines on the level of protection needed to prevent excess absenteeism and limit nosocomial transmission among healthcare workers and patients. Our goal is to
“pursue perfection” by immunizing all eligible healthcare workers with direct patient contact, and decreasing employee absenteeism during that influenza season by 10 percent in the 2006-07
influenza year.
Hand Washing
A campaign to improve hand washing in all clinical areas in John Dempsey Hospital is ongoing. Personnel are encouraged to wash their hands with a disinfectant solution before and after
every patient contact. Hygienic hand rub solutions have been installed in strategic clinical areas to facilitate hand hygiene and the importance of hand cleanliness, as the prime practice to
prevent the transfer of nosocomial organisms, has been heavily promoted.
The importance of hand washing is continually emphasized when staff members meet one-on-one with infection control liaison team members, through special awareness programs, and at the annual web-based
infection control update program. To identify instances of nosocomial spread, all positive cultures from organisms commonly spread by hand contamination are monitored. They include methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Clostridium difficile.
Surgical Site Infections
Information systems that identify patients, procedures, perioperative risk factors and intra operative events are coordinated. Development is underway of a system that can determine
whether or not perioperative antibiotics were prescribed appropriately and whether or not prophylactic antibiotics were administered an hour before surgical incision.
Central Venous Catheter Infections
Although it is relatively easy to collect information about the occurrence, epidemiology and microbiology of central venous catheter blood stream infections, it is extremely difficult to
collect denominator data on these infections. Currently a system is being setup to collect this type of information to determine the incidence, if any, of central venous
catheter-associated blood stream infections in the ICU.
Chair, C4I Infection Control Subgroup
Richard A. Garibaldi, M.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine
Hospital Epidemiologist |
