The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority found variation in the implementation of best practices at nursing homes with high and low rates of infections.
From October 2010 to November 2011, the authority conducted on-site assessment at 10 Pennsylvania nursing homes with high HAI rates and 10 with low HAI rates. Key findings from the authority's assessment include the following:
1. Overall, the scores for both high HAI and low HAI nursing homes were lowest in full implementation of hand hygiene best practices.
2. The highest overall scores for the nursing homes with low rates were in implementation of skin and soft-tissue infection prevention practices.
3. The nursing homes with high infection rates did best in implementing strategies for preventing gastrointestinal and multidrug-resistant organism infections.
4. Nursing homes with low rates scored better than high-rate nursing homes in full implementation of best practices in five of the seven assessment domains.
5. However, the nursing homes with high rates scored better than nursing homes with low rates in individual secondary categories for implementation of a plan, goals education, documentation, monitoring and assigned accountability for outbreak control.
From October 2010 to November 2011, the authority conducted on-site assessment at 10 Pennsylvania nursing homes with high HAI rates and 10 with low HAI rates. Key findings from the authority's assessment include the following:
1. Overall, the scores for both high HAI and low HAI nursing homes were lowest in full implementation of hand hygiene best practices.
2. The highest overall scores for the nursing homes with low rates were in implementation of skin and soft-tissue infection prevention practices.
3. The nursing homes with high infection rates did best in implementing strategies for preventing gastrointestinal and multidrug-resistant organism infections.
4. Nursing homes with low rates scored better than high-rate nursing homes in full implementation of best practices in five of the seven assessment domains.
5. However, the nursing homes with high rates scored better than nursing homes with low rates in individual secondary categories for implementation of a plan, goals education, documentation, monitoring and assigned accountability for outbreak control.
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