Hurting and Healing.

In this narrative medicine essay, a physician and single adoptive parent considers how orphaned children need not only material resources but love and specialized behavioral health care too.

Best Practices and a Business Case for Surgical Site Infection Prevention.

Surgical site infections (SSIs) can be costly and result in prolonged hospital stays; readmissions; and additional diagnostic tests, therapeutic antibiotic treatments, and surgical procedures. Evidence-based practices for preventing SSIs include environmental cleaning; instrument cleaning, decontamination, and sterilization; preoperative bathing; preoperative Staphylococcus aureus decolonization; intraoperative antimicrobial prophylaxis; hand hygiene; and surgical hand antisepsis. Strong partnerships among infection prevention personnel, perioperative nurses, surgeons, and anesthesia professionals may enhance perioperative infection prevention. Facility and physician-specific SSI rates should be reported to physicians and frontline personnel in a timely, accessible manner. Together with costs associated with SSIs, these data help determine the success of an infection prevention program. Leaders can develop a comprehensive business case proposal for perioperative infection prevention programs. The proposal should describe the need for the program and anticipated return on investment; it also should focus on the goal of decreasing SSIs by establishing metrics for assessing outcomes and addressing barriers.

Ten ways to make the most of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

One fundamental strategy to address the public health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is improved awareness among the public, prescribers, and policy makers with the aim of engaging these groups to act. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week is an opportunity for concerted and consistent communication regarding practical strategies to prevent and mitigate AMR. We highlight 10 ways for antimicrobial stewards to make the most of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

Results and lessons from a hospital-wide initiative incentivised by delivery system reform to improve infection prevention and sepsis care.

BACKGROUND: An academic safety-net hospital leveraged the federally funded state Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment programme to implement a hospital-wide initiative to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and improve sepsis care. METHODS: The study period was from 2013 to 2017. The setting is a 770-bed urban hospital with six intensive care units and a large emergency department. Key interventions implemented were (1) awareness campaign and clinician engagement, (2) implementation of HAI and sepsis bundles, (3) education of clinical personnel using standardised curriculum on bundles, (4) training of key managers, leaders and personnel in quality improvement methods, and (5) electronic medical record-based clinical decision support. Throughout the 5-year period, staff received frequent, clear, visible and consistent messages from leadership regarding the importance of their participation in this initiative, performing hand hygiene and preventing potential regulatory failures. Several process measures including bundle compliance, hand hygiene and culture of safety were monitored. The primary outcomes were rates of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), surgical site infection (SSI) and sepsis mortality. RESULTS: From 2013 to 2017, the hospital-wide rates of HAI reduced: CLABSI from 1.6 to 0.8 per 1000 catheter-days (Poisson regression estimate: -0.19; 95% CI -0.29 to -0.09; p=0.0002), CAUTI from 4.7 to 1.3 per 1000 catheter-days (-0.34; -0.43 to -0.26; p<0.0001) and SSI after 18 types of procedures from 3.4% to 1.3% (-0.29; -0.34 to -0.24; p<0.0001). Mortality of patients presenting to emergency department with sepsis reduced from 9.4% to 2.9% (-0.42; -0.49 to -0.36; p<0.0001). Adherence to bundles of care and hand hygiene and the hospital culture of patient safety improved. Results were sustained through 2019. CONCLUSION: A hospital-wide initiative incentivised by the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment programme succeeded in reducing HAI and sepsis mortality over 5 years in a sustainable manner.

Emergency Department Testing Patterns for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in North Texas.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about population-level sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing in emergency departments (EDs). We sought to explore STD testing patterns in EDs in a large, urban metroplex in North Texas, a high prevalence region. METHODS: Emergency department claims data were extracted from the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council databank for patients attending 54 EDs in 4 counties (Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton) who were tested for an STD during an ED visit between July 2014 and June 2015. We analyzed patterns of testing for 3 types of STD tests: (1) combined gonorrhea and chlamydia DNA-based tests, (2) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody tests, and (3) syphilis serological tests. RESULTS: Emergency departments administered at least 1 STD test to 65,702 unique patients over 1 year; most were ethnoracial minorities (73%), female (72%), and had no known insurance (59%). Only 8% of patients received more than 1 of these tests at that same visit; of those, 90% were cotested for HIV. The most common diagnosis code associated with STD testing was "genital/urinary symptoms" (31%). The majority of tests took place at the ED of a single county-funded hospital (42%). Only 36% of all patients had visits that were deemed true emergencies. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients tested for syphilis, HIV, or chlamydia/gonorrhea in EDs received only 1 test type at that visit, and most visits were nonemergent in nature. Given shared risk factors for multiple STD and high coinfection rates, EDs serving high-risk populations could consider STD cotesting to help reduce transmission of undiagnosed, untreated infections.

Recent advances in understanding the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections.

Since the 2014 publication of updates to the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) compendium of strategies to reduce healthcare-associated infections, there have been several advances in understanding the epidemiology of these diseases. This review article captures many of the key advances but does not include all of them.

Reducing Infections "Together": A Review of Socioadaptive Approaches.

Reducing healthcare-associated infections often requires the use of both technical and adaptive strategies. The experiences of Semmelweis and Nightingale teach us the importance of social adaptation of technical interventions. Because most infection prevention interventions require widespread participation by healthcare personnel, it is helpful for infectious diseases physicians to learn principles of diffusion of innovations theory and apply them to influence different groups. Comprehensive unit-based program has been successful in reducing device-associated infections. Positive deviance as a socioadaptive approach may be promising. These and other approaches such as social network analysis, relational coordination, link nurses, and stop the line policies need to be further evaluated in future studies. Future research on socioadaptive interventions needs to focus on developing tools and strategies for diagnosing local context and study how these interventions might influence culture of safety. Strategies to sustain momentum of improvement efforts in different healthcare settings need to be refined and further developed through additional research.

Using a Positive Deviance Approach to Influence the Culture of Patient Safety Related to Infection Prevention.

BACKGROUND: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are a socio-technical problem. We evaluated the impact of a social change intervention on health care personnel (HCP), called "positive deviance" (PD), on patient safety culture related to infection prevention among HCP. METHODS: This observational study was done in 6 medical wards at an 800-bed public academic hospital in the United States. Three of these wards were randomly assigned to receive PD intervention on HCP. After a retrospective 6-month baseline period, PD was implemented over 9 months, followed by 9 months of follow-up. Patient safety culture and social networks among HCP were surveyed at 6, 15, and 24 months. Rates of HAI were measured among patients. RESULTS: The measured patient safety culture was steady over time at 69% aggregate percent positive responses in wards with PD vs decline from 79% to 75% in wards without PD (F statistic 10.55; P = .005). Social network maps suggested that nurses, charge nurses, medical assistants, ward managers, and ward clerks play a key role in preventing infections. Fitted time series of monthly HAI rates showed a decrease from 4.8 to 2.8 per 1000 patient-days (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1 to 3.5) in wards without PD, and 5.0 to 2.1 per 1000 patient-days (95% CI, -0.4 to 4.5) in wards with PD. CONCLUSIONS: A positive deviance approach appeared to have a significant impact on patient safety culture among HCP who received the intervention. Social network analysis identified HCP who are likely to help disseminate infection prevention information. Systemwide interventions independent of PD resulted in HAI reduction in both intervention and control wards.

Tuberculosis Patients Who Are A Potential Source for Unprotected Exposure in Health Care Systems: A Multicenter Case Control Study.

SETTING: Five health care systems in Texas. OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of inadequate isolation for pulmonary tuberculosis leading to tuberculosis (TB) exposures from confirmed TB patients and the patient factors that led to the exposures. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort and case-control study of adult patients with TB resulting in exposures (cases) vs those TB patients who did not result in exposures (controls) during January 2005 to December 2012. RESULTS: There were 335 patients with pulmonary TB disease, 199 cases and 136 controls. There was no difference between groups in age (46 ± 14.6 vs 45 ± 17 years; P > .05), race, or substance abuse. Cases were more likely to be transplant recipients (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 18.90; 95% CI, 1.9-187.76), have typical TB chest radiograph (AOR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.1-4.51), and have positive acid-fast bacilli stains (AOR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.31-4.27). Cases were less likely to have extrapulmonary disease (AOR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.24-0.95). CONCLUSIONS: TB exposure resulting from inadequate isolation is frequent in health care settings. Extrapulmonary involvement resulted in earlier airborne isolation. Being a transplant recipient, having chest radiograph findings typical for TB, and sputum positivity acid-fast bacilli upon staining were associated with increased risk of inadequate isolation.

Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections in Patients on Emergent Hemodialysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study had 2 objectives: (1) to describe the epidemiology of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who have no access to scheduled dialysis and (2) to evaluate whether a positive culture of the heparin-lock solution is associated with subsequent development of bacteremia. DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort design for objective 1; and prospective cohort design for objective 2. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The study was conducted in a 770-bed public academic tertiary hospital in Dallas, Texas. The participants were patients with ESRD undergoing scheduled or emergent hemodialysis. METHODS: We reviewed the records of 147 patients who received hemodialysis between January 2011 and May 2011 and evaluated the rate of CRBSI in the previous 5 years. For the prospective study, we cultured the catheter heparin-lock solution in 62 consecutive patients between June 2012 and August 2012 and evaluated the incidence of CRBSI at 6 months. RESULTS: Of the 147 patients on emergent hemodialysis, 125 had a tunneled catheter, with a CRBSI rate of 2.61 per 1,000 catheter days. The predominant organisms were Gram-negative rods (GNR). In the prospective study, we found that the dialysis catheter was colonized more frequently in patients on emergent hemodialysis than in those on scheduled hemodialysis. Colonization with GNR or Staphylococcus aureus was associated with subsequent CRBSI at 6 months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing emergent hemodialysis via tunneled catheter are predisposed to Gram-negative CRBSI. Culturing the heparin-lock solution may predict subsequent episodes of CRBSI if it shows colonization with GNR or Staphylococcus aureus. Prevention approaches in this population need to be studied further.

Quality Improvement of Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia Management and Predictors of Relapse-free Survival.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. METHODS: A quasi-experimental pre- and postintervention study design was used to compare process and clinical endpoints before and after a quality-improvement initiative. All inpatients >18 years of age with a positive blood culture for S. aureus during the specified pre- and postintervention period with clinical information available in the electronic medical record were included. An institutional protocol for the care of patients with S. aureus bacteremia was developed, formalized, and distributed to providers using a pocket card, an electronic order set, and targeted lectures over a 9-month period. RESULTS: There were 167 episodes of S. aureus bacteremia (160 patients) identified in the preintervention period, and 127 episodes (123 patients) in the postintervention period. Guideline adherence improved in the postintervention period for usage of transesophageal echocardiogram (43.9% vs 20.2%, P <.01) and adequate duration of intravenous therapy (71% vs 60%, P = .05). In a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model, the variables associated with increased relapse-free survival were postintervention period (hazard ratio [HR] 0.48; confidence interval [CI], 0.24-0.95; P .035) and appropriate source control (HR 0.53; CI, 0.24-0.92; P .027). Regardless of intervention, presence of cancer was associated with an increased risk of relapse or mortality at 90 days (HR 2.88; P <.0001; CI, 1.35-5.01). CONCLUSION: A bundled educational intervention to promote adherence to published guidelines for the treatment of S. aureus bacteremia resulted in a significant improvement in provider adherence to guidelines as well as increased 90-day relapse-free survival.

Surveillance of patients identified with fungal mold at a public academic medical center.

BACKGROUND: This study describes the epidemiology of patients with fungal mold infection or colonization at a large academic medical center during a period of ongoing construction of a new hospital building. METHODS: This is an observational retrospective cohort study performed at a public academic hospital. We performed focused medical record review of all patients with fungal mold isolated on microbiologic culture over a 3-year period from May 2009 through April 2012. We established case definitions by modifying criteria used in previously published studies. We established 4 categories for invasiveness: proven invasive fungal disease (IFD), probable IFD, clinical infection not meeting IFD criteria, or colonization/contamination. We also established 3 categories for association with our health care facilities: health care-associated hospital onset (HO), health care-associated community onset (HACO), or community associated (CA). RESULTS: Of the 188 cases included in the study, 15 (7.9%) and 23 (12.2%) met criteria for proven and probable IFD, respectively. Of the cases, 114 (60.6%) represented contamination or colonization, and 36 (19.1%) had clinical infection not meeting IFD criteria. Epidemiologically, 46 (24.5%) cases were HO, 42 (22.3%) cases were HACO, and 100 (53.2%) cases were CA. CONCLUSION: The surveillance methods we established were helpful for characterizing and monitoring fungal mold infections at the study institution.