Hospital Acquired Infections: A Case Study

Healthcare is an ever-growing, booming industry and as medical technology advances so should our standards of care. Once known as hospital acquired “nosocomial” infections, Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are still afflicting the very patients we are to be treating. These patients could be our loved ones, friends, and family so to say that, “1 in 25 hospital patients have at least one HAI in a U.S. acute care hospital” (CDC, 2015), is still one too many.

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) will begin to display signs and symptoms within 48 hours. In order to treat the infections, physicians need to diagnostic tools quickly. The manufacturer of new diagnostic test makers, Kalorama Information stated last year that the world demand for testing and treatment of HAI will be over 10 billion dollars by the year 2015, increasing from 9 billion dollars in 2010. Kalorama also stated that HAI has a 5% infection rate of 40 million hospital visits a year, causing 100,000 deaths in the U.S. annually (Kalorama Information, July 14, 2011). Early diagnosis will improve the patient's outcome and decrease the chance of death. According to Kalorama, 20-30% of the HAI can be prevented by the simple use of better hand washing and cross contamination avoidance although the others need more intensive changes such as hospital ventilation systems and using more disposable supplies (Kalorama Information, p. 113) .

Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) affect 1.7 million Americans each year with as many as 98,000 dying annually as a result of hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) (Kavanagh, 2007). In 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented policy to include non-payment for HAC in order to improve quality patient care and contain costs. This non-payment disincentive refuses to pay for complications of care that are considered preventable. Two other paradigms of this policy used to promote quality include pay-for-performance initiatives and public disclosure of HAC.

Researchers conducted a study to assess the etiology, incidence, and risk factors of CAUTIs in the ICU to determine whether risk factors differed based on whether or not the patient had a second form of HAI along with a CAUTI. Risk factors associated with CAUTIs included age, female gender, presence of infection on admission, underlying diseases such as diabetes mellitus, renal failure, heart failure or immune suppression, recent surgery, previous antibiotic usage, duration of catheterization, and length of stay (Temiz, et al.,

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are inflecting a tremendous impact on healthcare safety and medical costs. The purpose of this qualitative analysis is to evaluate current research and evidence based practice on central line acquired blood stream infections (CLABSI) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Further, this paper will examine how the closed medication line system can help decrease of a CLABSI event. Neonates are a vulnerable population with a low immune suppression where an infection could simply mean life or death. This particular topic is crucial; with the continual rise in pre-term neonates, this topic is crucial to eliminate CLABSI 100% in the NICU environment

The occurrence of hospital acquired infections has become a norm in the health care system. Patients’ experiences of being infected with MRSA at a hospital and subsequently isolated follows 6 patients in their experiences after becoming infected with methicillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in an outbreak in Sweden. MRSA this is a staphylococcus bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics such as penicillin, which was traditionally used to treat it (Vyas, 2015).

Healthcare-associated infection requires both a change in behavior and in the organization’s culture. It should be kept in mind the the goal of a culture of safety is to reduce harm to the patients and to provide the best care to the patient. It is important that we understand why certain skills and safety measures are put into place such as washing your hands before and after each patient or encountering any soil substances. Most of the healthcare-associated infections are not done intended. Unintended consequences occur due to lack of verbal, written, or any other form of communication. Also at times the realization that something was not done correctly is kept quite due to fear of the consequences. That is why now “The Institute of Medicine” has been trying to implement that the facilities try to address situations by seeing where the error occur and trying to prevent it from happening again instead of pointing the finger and trying to blame someone (Barnsteiner, 2011).

Although there has been substantial progress that has been achieved over the past few years, there are still considerable deficiencies in the ability to efficiently and effectively come up with new knowledge about HAIs and be able to translate it into a more sustainable, reliable, and widespread practice. Various studies have shown that there are five most common HAIs: surgical site infection (SSI); central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI); ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP); Clostridium difficile infection (CDI); and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) (Septimus et al.,

In this article, the National Patient Safety Goal 07.01.01 addresses the reduction of hospital-acquired infections (Joint Commission, 2008). The Joint Commission (2008), the World Health Organization (WHO, 2009), the CDC (2006), and the Society for Healthcare

CAUTI is the most frequent type of HAI, and represents as much as 80% of HAIs in hospitals.(The Joint Commission, 2011) This high occurrence of infection in hospitals creates a high concern in patient centered care. The hospital can only do so much, what 's important is exactly how the nurse conducts herself. Starting

When an ill or injured patient is admitted to a hospital, they certainly do not anticipate in becoming more ill. They surely don’t plan on contracted the infection of their neighboring patients. These infections are known as Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI). “Nosocomial infections, also called ‘hospital-acquired infections’, are infections acquired during hospital care which are not present or incubating at admission. Infections occurring more than 48 hours after admission are usually considered nosocomial” (WHO, 2002). Standard-setters and evaluators, such as the CDC and The Joint Commission (who evaluate and rate hospitals), have long demanded that hospitals

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are infections that develop in a hospital environment. This could be anything from a patient acquiring the infection during their hospital visit or the spreading of the infection amongst hospital staff. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that 1.7 million HAI’s contribute to at least 98,000 deaths per year in the United States. On a more economical aspect; the United States spends $45 billion per year on nosocomial related health problems (Schmidt, pg 31).

The authors commented that complications after surgery increases hospitals cost and lengthens the patient’s stay in the institution. Spiraling cost for healthcare is not advantageous for the hospitals or the patients. Patients who stay in hospitals longer than expected because of infections are likely to prefer law suits against the institution. Compounding the problem are cases that results in serious morbidity or mortality resulting from infected surgical sites. In addition, the rate of readmission into hospitals and further surgery contributes to the concerns for reducing postoperative infections (Webster & Osborne). The research is relevant and poses a nursing challenge that includes other healthcare professionals such as administrators, surgeons, practitioners, patients, and the public.

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) is a major safety concern for both health care providers and the patients. Considering morbidity, mortality, increased length of stay and the cost, efforts should be made to make the hospitals as safe as possible by preventing such infections. These guidelines have been developed for health care personnel involved in patient care in wards and critical care areas and for persons responsible for surveillance and control of infections in hospital. (Mehta et al., 2014) These healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) include central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Infections may also occur at surgery sites, known as surgical

Healthcare facilities are always looking for new ways to improve and provide better care for their patients. As the market of healthcare has rapidly become more competitive, healthcare systems are looking for new ways to improve service and care. These new ideas for improvement not only have positive outcomes for patients but, save the healthcare system money at the same time. One of the major problems hospitals have faced is hospital acquired infections (HAI’s). These infections happen in addition to what the patient came into the hospital for. One of the major changes has been the repayment from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS). CMS will no longer pay for any type of HAI that has been contracted during a