During a session at the Becker’s Hospital Review 4th Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 11, Adam Boris, CEO of IC-Net and Nicole Gritton, vice president of nursing at Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Fla., shared four strategies for infection prevention.
1. Look to other industries. Mr. Boris recommended looking to other industries for ideas on increasing compliance with safety and quality measures. “We need to look outside our industry for solutions to what are very common problems,” he said. He gave an example of the aviation industry, which uses safety checklists before each flight and “has not had a crash in 20 years,” he said.
2. Make compliance as convenient as possible. Ms. Gritton emphasized the importance of making compliance as easy as possible for medical staff. She gave an example of how her hospital’s hand hygiene compliance rate was near 46 percent (the national average). She increased accessibility and convenience to improve compliance by placing hand sanitizer in patient rooms, outside of operating rooms and many other places a staff member might need it. “It’s all about making it more convenient for staff to be compliant,” she said.
3. Use technology wisely. “Technology is and should be used as companion to human factors,” said Ms. Gritton. Both panelists agreed many advances in infection control technology can greatly aid hospital staff preventing infections. “You also need to need leverage technology for things that doesn’t require trained professional, to release time back to training, education and patient intervention,” said Ms. Gritton.
4. Link outcome to process. Both panelists recognized that physician compliance can be difficult on safety measures. Mr. Boris advocated linking the outcome to performance, and highlight how compliance on measures like hand hygiene is a patient safety issue. “It’s very compelling when you can present real evidence” showing how following safety measures improves outcomes, he said.
Both panelists stressed the importance of reducing infections in hospitals, especially as Medicare and a myriad of hospital scorecards focus on the issue. “And shining light on this is going to change where patients take their business,” said Mr. Boris.
1. Look to other industries. Mr. Boris recommended looking to other industries for ideas on increasing compliance with safety and quality measures. “We need to look outside our industry for solutions to what are very common problems,” he said. He gave an example of the aviation industry, which uses safety checklists before each flight and “has not had a crash in 20 years,” he said.
2. Make compliance as convenient as possible. Ms. Gritton emphasized the importance of making compliance as easy as possible for medical staff. She gave an example of how her hospital’s hand hygiene compliance rate was near 46 percent (the national average). She increased accessibility and convenience to improve compliance by placing hand sanitizer in patient rooms, outside of operating rooms and many other places a staff member might need it. “It’s all about making it more convenient for staff to be compliant,” she said.
3. Use technology wisely. “Technology is and should be used as companion to human factors,” said Ms. Gritton. Both panelists agreed many advances in infection control technology can greatly aid hospital staff preventing infections. “You also need to need leverage technology for things that doesn’t require trained professional, to release time back to training, education and patient intervention,” said Ms. Gritton.
4. Link outcome to process. Both panelists recognized that physician compliance can be difficult on safety measures. Mr. Boris advocated linking the outcome to performance, and highlight how compliance on measures like hand hygiene is a patient safety issue. “It’s very compelling when you can present real evidence” showing how following safety measures improves outcomes, he said.
Both panelists stressed the importance of reducing infections in hospitals, especially as Medicare and a myriad of hospital scorecards focus on the issue. “And shining light on this is going to change where patients take their business,” said Mr. Boris.