Preventing Hospital Infections: Real-World Problems, Realistic Solutions

Abstract

PREVENTING HOSPITAL INFECTIONS: REAL-WO RLD PROBLEMS, REALISTIC SOLUTIONS Sanjay Saint, Sarah L. Krein, and Robert W. Stock Oxford University Press, 2015, 155 pp., $41.95 (softcover)Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) have become an important focus for health care personnel at all levels from the bedside to the executive suite. The approximately 100,000 Americans estimated to die each year as a result of a HAI experienced the most severe consequence, but the impact of HAI does not end there. Patients who contract HAI stay in the hospital longer, are exposed to more and stronger antibiotics, and generate a greater amount of health care costs than they would if the HAI was prevented. In addition, HAI may affect reimbursement rates and are thus a driver for health care quality improvement projects within many institutions.Implementation of technological advances such as antimicrobial surfaces and new devices less susceptible to contamination play an important role in HAI prevention. In this book, Preventing Hospital Infections, the authors turn the attention to the human factor in HAI prevention and transmission. The best device in the world may fail if used incorrectly, and the hospital protocol that lingers unused in a binder, known only to its creator, cannot change incidence of HAI in a health care facility.The book is written in a readable, conversational style, and arranged into 10 chapters. It begins with a discussion of the burden and impact of HAI and the most common device-related HAI: catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI). Research has demonstrated shockingly low adherence to infection prevention practices related to these infections. The authors cite a recent study in which adherence to evidencebased CAUTI prevention practices ranged from 6% to 27% (p. 3).The majority of the book examines organizational and leadership strategies to change behaviors and prevent HAI using CAUTI as the example outcome. Urinary catheters are in wide use in many units of the hospital and long-term care facilities for many indications, not just the intensive care unit, and the strategies discussed are not unique to CAUTI.The following chapters describe how organizations can commit to infection prevention initiatives, types of interventions which may be considered, building teams, team roles of leaders and followers, realistic solutions, sustainability, collaborative approaches to infection prevention, and the future of infection prevention. …