Reducing Healthcare Acquired Infections

Human Impact of Hospital acquired Infections:

The human impact of healthcare associated infections makes efforts to eliminate HCAI transmission in healthcare settings compelling and necessary. Patient safety initiatives for healthcare settings, whether facility derived or imported from national venues are increasingly focused on reducing the risk to patients of contracting a healthcare related infection.

Cost Impact of Hospital Infections:

The HSE calculated that of the order of 25,000 patients may acquire HCAI annually based on the HIS point prevalence study. It has been estimated that that approximately one third of all HCAI is preventable therefore the potential saving from preventable infection in Ireland is approximately €7.6 million

Examining the processes involved in patient care and focusing on opportunities for improved hygiene standards can facilitate a reduction in healthcare acquired infections and a subsequent decrease in average length of stay.

Programme Options

The Leading Edge Group can deliver the following programmes on a case by case basis. A pre-meeting would be required with the organisation to determine the time and length involved for each programme.

Conduct an audit of multidisciplinary hand washing practices across the organisation and comparison of results with national best practice guidelines.
Review existing bed management policies and isolation precaution procedures.
Facilitate on-site preparation of hygiene standards to meet JCI / HIQA requirements
Support the development of an outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy unit if required.

Approach

The above series of programmes will involve the application of Lean sigma tools and techniques such as value stream mapping and cause and effect matrices to analyse opportunities for improvement. The client will identify a project lead for the duration of the programme and this individual will be the primary interface between the organisation and the Leading Edge Group representative. Prior to commencement of the programme a project charter will be agreed upon in order to ensure project scope and deliverables are clearly defined and are applicable to the individual clients’ organisation

Please contact our Senior Clinical Lead, Jane Bishop, on jbishop@leanscm.com to discuss any of our programmes