What is the hospital doing about hospital-acquired infections?
Dr. Schneider: Because we recognize the importance of reducing these infections that people, unfortunately, sometimes pick up while in the hospital, we’re adding additional staff, including doctors and nurses, to our Epidemiology (infection control) Department. With separate projects, we are voluntarily tackling all four infections identified by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Central line, surgical site and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia. In addition we are developing protocols to minimize the number of days that patients have urinary catheters in order to minimize infection risk. We also are in the process of developing an electronic epidemiology surveillance tracking system to look for infection trends so we can respond to them in the quickest and most accurate way possible. Most importantly we are transforming our culture to expect all staff to comply with handwashing and use of appropriate infection contr
