By Healthcare Facilities Today

Both Topeka hospitals have reduced infections acquired while patients are receiving treatment as part of a statewide push, according to an article on The Topeka Capital-Journal website. 

Most health care-associated infections come from medical equipment or drug-resistant bacteria, but can be prevented with low-tech solutions like proper hand hygiene and isolating patients who may be contagious, Julie Bernal said in the article. Bernal is a registered nurse, supervisor of infection prevention, and control and clinical documentation improvement specialist at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center.

Stormont-Vail added more dispensers of an alcohol foam staff who work with patients must use before and after treating a patient, Bernal said in the article. They also gave staff bottles of hand sanitizer for areas that don’t have foam dispensers and posted reminders about hand-washing in restrooms, she said.

Stormont-Vail is on track to reduce C. difficile infections by 30 percent, Bernal said.

St. Francis Health has developed a checklist to prevent infections from intravenous lines and has added a reminder system for doctors to evaluate whether a catheter is still medically necessary each day, according to the article.

Kansas state epidemiologist Charlie Hunt said most prevention work is done on the local level, but the state is developing a data collection system so hospitals can compare their results over time. Reporting is voluntary, and hospitals that choose to participate turn over their data monthly. The first report on health care-associated infections, using 2011 data, was released this year, according to the article.

Read the article.