An alarmingly high number of hospital acquired infections were reported at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care nursery last year, says Dr. Michael Henderson, chief medical officer at UMMC.
The unit recorded 18 central line associated bloodstream infections. Those infections are streamed directly from an IV or drip that is inserted into the veins of sick babies needing food and constant medicine.
The medical center also received a F-rating last year by The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit independent organization that reports annual hospital safety scores for adult and pediatric general acute-care hospitals in the United States.
But something as seemingly simple as hand washing and sanitary foaming can start solving the problem.
UMMC is modeling its new hand washing routine after the Targeted Solutions Tool, an innovative application that guides healthcare organizations to overcoming particular barriers within their facilities.
According to Targeted Solutions Tool data, at least 130 different hospital acquired infections may be prevented, the mortality rate will decrease and the hospital will save at least $2.3 million dollars in direct medical costs.
“Hand hygiene is easy to say and not so easy to do,” says Henderson.
The center installed additional foaming stations and hand hygiene posters in all clinical and common areas to remind employees as well as patients and visitors of their part in the responsibility of decreasing infections, says Henderson.
We tell them to sing a song like Mary Had a Little Lamb while washing, says Lisa Lathem, director of infection prevention at UMMC.
“After they dry, they are to use the paper towel to refrain from making contact with the faucet handle,” Lathem adds.
The medical center also uses a coaching initiative called Just in Time, in which colleagues privately alert one another to wash their hands. In addition, a rotating group of 30 employees every second Tuesday of each month secretly observes their colleagues’ hand hygiene practices during patient interactions. Those employees report compliance numbers, and those numbers are then shared on UMMC’s intranet data system to track improvements.
This August, 71 percent of front line caregivers were observed complying with the center’s established hand hygiene routine, a 17 percent increase from last year. The 2016 year-end goal is no less than 80 percent.
Earlier this year, the neonatal intensive care unit went 215 days without a central line associated bloodstream infection.
“Reality is, we’re better than we were a year ago but we still have a long way to go,” says Henderson.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.