Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Sustaining Success in Preventing Health Care-Associated Infections

In 2005, North Shore University Hospital's president and chief executive officer made a commitment to develop a standardized approach to control the incidence of hospital-acquired infections and improve infection control practices across the entire organization. A zerotolerance for infection goal was established, with a priority focus on the 28 adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units that house more than 400 ICU beds. A multidisciplinary, system-wide infection prevention task force representing each of theacute care hospitals and long-term care facilities worked to standardize infection control practices, develop explicit policies and procedures, select and purchase patient care equipment associated with a lower risk of infection and develop education on the importance of infection control protocols.