Technologies To Battle HAIs

By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs), an increasingly popular buzzword in healthcare over the past few years, have been a topic of growing concern for hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. A hospital-acquired infection is usually one that first appears three days after a patient is admitted to a hospital or other healthcare facility. The most common types of HAIs are urinary tract infections, pneumonia, surgical wound infections, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The reasons for the growing concern are clear:

• HAIs cost $45 billion annually
• 9 of every 200 hospital patients will become infected in the hospital
• HAIs are the fourth largest killer in the United States, with nearly two million infections and over 100,000 related deaths a year.
• HAI victims are seven times more likely to die than the average patient.
• HAIs patients have an average length of stay of 20.6 days versus 4.5 for infection-free patients

As indicated by the startling statistics above, HAIs not only negatively impact the quality of patient care, but also have a disastrous affect on the financial performance of a hospital. Not to mention opening the facility up to potential lawsuits. However, several technologies are available today to help you to better control and limit instances of HAIs in your facility. Some of the most popular technologies in fighting HAIs include:

Sterilization Technology

Properly sterilizing hospital rooms and equipment is key to preventing the spread of infection to patients. Portable sterilization systems that can be taken to any location to sterilize rooms, surgical suites, and clinics are growing increasingly popular. These devices often produce a gas emission that sterilizes hospital rooms and equipment. Many are even safe to use on electronics. However, you may also want to ensure that your clinicians' mobile communications and data collection devices (e.g. mobile computers, scanners, smartphones, etc.) come equipped with an antimicrobial coating that can withstand multiple sterilization procedures.

Automated Surveillance Technology

Hospitals that use automated surveillance technology may be more likely than those that use manual surveillance to combat HAIs effectively. Evidence of this was presented at according to findings presented at the 37th Annual Conference and International Meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Researchers conducted a structured, computer-assisted telephone survey with the quality director of all acute care general hospitals in California between October 2008 and January 2009. The aim was to determine whether use of automated surveillance technology is more effective than manual surveillance in implementing HAI control programs.

A total of 241 hospitals were included in the final analysis, 32.4% of which employ automated surveillance technology to monitor HAIs. Statistically significant positive associations were observed between adoption of automated surveillance technology and the depth to which hospitals implemented evidence-based prevention programs for MRSA, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and other HAIs. Hospitals with automated methods were more likely than those with manual methods to have fully implemented research-based programs to reduce MRSA (85% vs. 66%), ventilator-associated pneumonia (96% vs. 88%), and surgical care infection practices (91% vs. 82%).

Automated Patient Flow Technology

With automated patient flow, clinicians can enter real-time patient data into a software system that tracks patient progress. If appropriate, this could include contracted infection details including infection type, status, and the need for an isolation room. Once an infection is entered, the system can automatically transmit alerts that are relayed to all staff levels — not just the clinical level. By linking infection control to automated patient flow, several steps in the traditional communications chain are simultaneously eliminated and hazardous gaps in the chain are closed.

Automated patient flow also helps prevent non-infected patients to be "mismatched" with infected ones. This process can be extremely difficult in overcrowded hospitals. Patient flow automation helps by providing real-time knowledge of bed status throughout the institution, reducing the likelihood that the wrong patient goes into the wrong room at the wrong time. More information on automated patient flow can be found in this white paper on Health IT Outcomes.

While these technologies will not eliminate HAIs, they can go a long way in reducing instances of HAIs when combined with effective internal infection-control policies, processes, and workflows.

Ken Congdon is Editor In Chief of Health IT Outcomes. He can be reached at ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com.