Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

The Bug Stops Here

The Problem

Central line-associated bloodstream infections have vexed hospitals performing interventional care for years. While the rate at Allegheny General Hospital was no worse than the national average, it was decided that meeting that goal was unacceptably low and that patients were being needlessly harmed by CLAB infections.

The Solution

Declaring "zero tolerance" for CLAB infections, the AGH Coronary Care Unit—site of many such infections—embarked on an ambitious project to eliminate them. Working with the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, the CCU team endeavored to obtain as close to real-time information and convened at the bedside to assess what went wrong whenever possible.