The University of Nebraska Medical Center and its hospital partner, Nebraska Medicine, in conjunction with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), have established a center with a $2.4 million, three-year contract that will help health providers across Nebraska reduce the number of infections patients get in health care facilities.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the funds to (DHHS), which contracted with the medical center. It is part of a nationwide effort to reduce health care-associated infections (HAI).
The contract establishes the Nebraska Infection Control Assessment and Promotion Program (ICAP) at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine in Omaha.
Dr. Rupp said the team will work with health facilities across the state to employ current guidelines and tools for infection prevention. In addition, the group will evaluate the status of existing capacities and policies, provider training and the capability to detect and control infectious disease outbreaks.
The CDC estimates that about 4 percent of hospitalized Americans develop a health care-associated infection.
“Four percent nationally may not sound like a lot, but when you realize there are tens of millions of hospitalized patients, this equates to one to two million infections per year and nearly 100,000 lives lost,” said Mark Rupp, M.D., acting director of the new ICAP, chief of the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases and medical director of the Nebraska Medicine Department of Infection Control & Epidemiology. “Each acute care facility in Nebraska has an infection control program in place, therefore, the ICAP will emphasize efforts to prevent infections in other types of health facilities such as ambulatory surgical centers, long term care facilities and critical access hospitals,” he said.
Kate Tyner, an infection prevention nurse with Nebraska Medicine, who serves as coordinator of the ICAP, said it’s important to note that ICAP is not a regulatory authority.
“Our goal is to form a collaborative and educational partnership with our colleagues across the state to help them improve their practices and help facilities that may not have had ready access to infection prevention resources,” Tyner said.
Shelly Schwedhelm, Nebraska Medicine executive director of emergency preparedness & infection prevention, will provide administrative oversight for ICAP. She said the team will visit most types of facilities where patients are cared for, including long term care, acute care, rehabilitation, surgical, and skilled nursing.
“There’s been a discernible decrease across the country in some types of infections because of the proven prevention protocols that have gone into place,” Schwedhelm said. “But other infections have persisted at unacceptably high rates. The best defense against these deadly threats is through educating health professionals on infection prevention best practices.”
Maureen Tierney, M.D., HAI coordinator for DHHS, said DHHS has been working to reduce HAIs in Nebraska in conjunction with the Great Plains Quality Innovation Network, a non-profit health care quality improvement organization.
“While prior initiatives demonstrated some measurable improvements in HAIs, there is still much progress to be made,” Dr. Tierney said. “This new funding creates an opportunity to expand efforts to reduce health-care associated infections and further improve patient safety. We’re pleased to work with the ICAP team.”
Health care associated infections include:
•Central line-associated bloodstream infections;
•Catheter-associated urinary tract infections;
•Surgical site infections; and
•Infections due to multidrug-resistant organisms.
Tyner said patients and family members also play an important role in the effort to fight against HAIs.
“A well-informed family member or advocate is extremely important in the welfare of a patient in various settings,” Tyner said. “Patients and their advocates should be looking for things like hand hygiene, safe practices when inserting and caring for urinary and vascular catheters, appropriate use of antibiotics, preventive measures for preventing surgical site infections.
“If patients or family members see something that’s not making sense to them, it’s certainly well within their right to ask for an explanation. Being informed and appropriately assertive is to the patient’s advantage,” she said.