Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

8 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY CoxHealth uses hand scanners to prevent medical errors By Megan Knowles S pringfield, Mo.-based CoxHealth is putting vein pattern readers in its six hospitals to reduce the risk of giving patients the wrong treatment, Ozarks First reported. Upon checking in at the hospital, patients will place their hand on a device that has an infrared camera and reads the vein pattern in their hand. The process takes about three seconds and connects each patient's palm vein to their medical record to help providers avoid treating the wrong patient. "It's so unique that identical twins do not have the same vein pattern," Jack Cole, Cox's IT administrative director, told Ozarks First. For CoxHealth, which checks in hundreds of patients daily — some with the same first and last name and birth date — the technology is critical to patient safety, said Charlotte Hale, assistant director of admissions with CoxHealth. "I believe it will save lives," Mr. Cole said. "If you are en- rolled into the system and you show up into the emergen- cy room and you don't have any ID and your unconscious or you're unable to identify yourself, they will be able to scan your palm and know exactly who you are." The palm readers are set to be placed in all CoxHealth hospitals by this fall. Patients must be enrolled in the Cox- Health security system for the readers to be applicable. n Human trafficking crisis drives Delaware hospitals to create victim care guidelines By Harrison Cook N o universal policy or safety program exists for Delaware hospitals encountering human trafficking victims, prompting hospital leaders from across the state to develop screening guidelines to identify and treat these victims, according to the Delaware News Journal. Here are five things to know: 1. Human trafficking victims are usually young girls and women who visit a hospital's emergency room due to an overdose, attempted suicide, being beaten or diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. ey typically do not have an ID and could be accompanied by a man. ey may also be wearing clothing that is inappropriate for their age or exhibit some sort of branding, according to the report. Since 2007, Delaware has reported 74 cases of human trafficking, including 21 last year, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. 2. A 2014 survey of 100 human trafficking survivors found 88 percent had some sort of contact with a healthcare professional in ERs or hospitals. In most situations, healthcare professionals didn't realize they were screening human trafficking victims. 3. To address this problem, the Delaware Healthcare Association, which represents every health system in the state, formed a commit- tee tasked to create a series of screening questions to better identify human trafficking victims. e committee contains one representative from most hospitals in the state, as well as two physicians from the Medical Society of Delaware. e group is piecing together the best protocols taken from Delaware health systems to create a universal policy for identifying human trafficking victims. 4. e committee's guidelines will include recommendations from the CDC and the nonprofit Hope for Justice, which both highlight a trauma-informed approach to care for human trafficking victims, according to Robert Varipapa, MD, a neurologist at Dover, Del.-based Bayhealth Medical Center and a representative of the Medical Society of Delaware who sits on the committee. 5. Local clinicians told the Delaware News Journal they believe the screening guidelines could be rolled out within a year. n HAIs take an emotional toll on patients, study finds By Anuja Vaidya A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control examined the effects of healthcare-associated infections beyond physical health. Researchers conducted a meta-synthesis of qualitative re- search, assessing 17 studies from five different countries. The studies included patients suffering from five common types of HAIs, and the researchers focused on patient experience. Researchers found many patients with HAIs experienced an emotional response. Many reported "feeling dirty," feeling like they had "the plague" or "feeling like a leper." Additionally, pa- tients with nearly all colonization or infection types described a fear of transmitting their infection. Several patients reported provider interactions that caused fear and uncertainty, particularly when frontline providers did not provide adequate information about the causes and consequences of HAIs. Some patients, especially those colonized by methicillin-resis- tant Staphylococcus aureus, were concerned about working in certain professions and had a fear of rejection by coworkers. "Having an HAI is a significant event in the patient's care jour- ney and subsequent life that is influenced by biology, society and context," said Kay Currie, PhD, the paper's lead author. "Understanding the patient experience can help [healthcare providers] to interact and respond in a constructive way, pro- viding more effective support during this challenging time in a patient's healthcare experience." n

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