Maryland hospital safety experts are looking at a new standard for many preventive infections and mishaps that can harm the most vulnerable patients: zero.
“Zero is the answer. It?s been a tremendous cultural change in this state,” said Dr. Bill Minogue, director of the Maryland Patient Safety Center. “We?ve almost eliminated central line [IV] infections in the state. It?s been zero in many hospitals for many, many months.”
Many of those infections, Minogue said, involved drug-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria.
The Maryland Health Care Commission is putting a framework in place for the public to see specific infection and other mishap rates by hospital and should begin reporting MRSA infections by the end of this year.
Since its creation in 2004 by the Maryland Legislature and Maryland Health Care Commission, the Patient Safety Center has trained 7,000 health care professionals on safety measures, according to a report published last week. The center also guided patient safety teams at 150 hospitals throughout the state on how to reduce preventable incidents.
At Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Infection Control Manager Karen Mackie said that MRSA infections are lower than most other hospitals, but that many states still do not require standard reporting of hospital-acquired infections. GBMC will hold a public forum Tuesday on how to protect yourself from MRSA outside of the hospital.
“We practice isolation of infected patients and hand hygiene ? those are our two major weapons,” Mackie said. “We have the alcohol gel in every patient room and we are working on putting it outside of every room as well, so it?s a double-barrel approach.”
At other hospitals, clergy will cover their Bibles with surgical caps, and coat hooks outside patient rooms remind doctors to change into disposable gowns to avoid spreading infections, the safetycenter report states.
Creating a culture of safety goes beyond staph infections.
The Maryland Patient Safety Center?s Perinatal Collaborative now includes 26 hospitals in Maryland and Washington, D.C., working to eliminate preventable injuries in birthing wards, the report states. Another 29 emergency departments participated in a program to improve patient flow, reduce time in treating chest pain, sepsis, and pneumonia, and cut catheter-associated bloodstream infections.
