Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY 34 Scientists Urge Hospitals to Purchase Antibiotic-Free Meat Only By Heather Punke T he UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco has been phasing out meat from animals that were given antibiotics for growth promotion for the last two years, and scientists from UCSF are urging other hospitals to follow suit. Today, about one-third of meat served to patients at UCSF Medical Center comes from animals that were only given antibiotics if they were sick. When animals are given antibiotics, it can encourage the development of resistance to said antibiotics. e U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed, however, according to UCSF scientists. "Because the actions of federal legislators and regulators remain insufficient, it is time for the healthcare sector to expand its stewardship over these lifesaving drugs beyond clinical practice," said Michael Martin, MD, an assistant clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF and the lead author of an opinion piece in the American Journal of Public Health. At UCSF Medical Center, switching to antibiotic-free meat has not affected the price of chicken, but it has affected the price of beef. However, people are still purchasing the food from the cafeteria, so the price increase has not affected demand. Authors of the opinion piece in the American Journal of Public Health note that if enough hospitals start buying antibiotic-free meat, it could create more of a market and therefore drop prices. n Infection Control Bundle Including UV Disinfection Lowered SSIs to Zero, Study Found By Heather Punke S urgical site infections for patients undergoing total knee and total hip replacements at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., dropped to zero after the hospital implemented quality im- provement initiatives and pulsed xenon ultraviolet room disinfections, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control. To lower total joint SSIs, the hospital took a two- pronged approach: quality improvement and no- touch environment disinfection. Some examples of quality improvement the hospital took on include: • Discontinuing catheters in postanesthesia care unit • Getting more orthopedics nurses to pass orthopedics certification • Moving from no safety huddles to one safety huddle per shift every day • Assigning patients a coach • Beginning ambulation on day-of surgery In addition to those changes, the hospital began using pulsed xenon UV light to disinfect rooms. Ac- cording to the study, the hospital saw a 65.3 percent reduction in bacterial load when using the PX-UV device compared to standard terminal cleaning. Before full implementation of both prongs of the bundle, the hospital had 4 SSIs reported from 200 total hip procedures, and three SSIs from 191 total knee procedures. After the bundle was fully imple- mented, no SSIs were reported from 191 total hip procedures or from 394 total knee procedures. Additionally, the hospital reported a savings of $290,990 over 12 months. n

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