Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Eliminating Infections

Texas Health Resources, a 14-hospital system based in Arlington, wanted to not only reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia and central-line infections, but eliminate them entirely. However, similar to most health workers, staff had the mindset that some amount of infection would occur and it was impossible to eliminate them. "It was a paradigm shift when we started talking about a zero rate," says Sue Sebazco, RN, director of infection prevent and employee health at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital. However, infection control council members presented evidence showing the effectiveness of VAP and CLASBI bundles and it eventually changed the mindset of THR caregivers. "As the years go on, we have even sicker patients at a higher risk for infection, but we don?t use that as an excuse anymore," says Sebazco. THR?s CLASBI rates fell from 1.5/1000 patient central line days to 0.6. Additionally, it did not experience one VAP case from August 2008 to February 2009.