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Reporting data to NHSN has become a full-time job for many infection
preventionists. Hospitals must report not only infections, but also all procedures covered by those codes so the CDC can establish baseline rates of
infections. Data about each infection event and each surgical procedure
must be entered individually, a process that involves inputting or selecting multiple fields. Manual data entry also increases the opportunity for
mistakes, a critical factor, as just one data entry error could jeopardize the
successful submission of all data entered.
"Many infection control departments are stretched with various mandatory
reporting requirements, including the federal, state and perhaps the local
Quality Improvement Organization and/or The Joint Commission," Ms.
Stone of Columbia says. "Many clinicians have reported that this takes
away time from general prevention activities such as education and patient
follow-up, as well as from important (infection-related) problems."
To effectively manage the myriad metrics and reporting requirements and
their resulting penalties and costs, Ms. Stone says that hospitals need to
invest in appropriate resources to ensure they can reliably set objectives for
HAI reduction and measure their performance against those objectives. n
Adam Boris, MS, MBA, was appointed CEO of ICNet Systems in 2011. He has
more than 25 years' experience in leadership positions with various U.S.-based technology companies. ICNet's infection surveillance software helps more than 1,000 hospitals
around the world reduce surgical site infections, prevent outbreaks and adverse drug
events, and facilitate antimicrobial stewardship.
15
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5 Strategies to Combat AntibioticResistant Bacteria
By Sabrina Rodak
C
ontinued antibiotic resistance indicates a
need for new strategies to minimize antibiotic-resistant bacteria and make longlasting improvement, according to a perspective
piece in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The authors group these new strategies into the
following five categories:
1. Preventing infection and resistance.
One tactic in this category is using automated disinfectant in hospital rooms, according to the study.
2 Refilling antibiotic pipeline by aligning economic and regulatory approaches. Government or non-profit grants can help
support antibiotic research.
4. Developing microbe-attacking treatments with diminished potential to drive
resistance. Immune-based therapies are one
example of microbe-attacking treatments.
3. Preserving available antibiotics,
slowing resistance. For example, healthcare
providers can publicly report antibiotic-use data
for benchmarking and reimbursement, the authors wrote.
5. Developing treatments attacking
host targets rather than microbial targets to avoid selective pressure driving
resistance. For example, healthcare providers
can employ direct moderation of host inflammation in response to infection. n
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