Kentucky Hospitals Band Together to Reduce Medical Device Infections

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Thirty-three Kentucky hospitals are participating in an effort to improve patient safety and prevent infections, a collaborative headed by the Kentucky Hospital Association.

Medical devices can cause blood stream infections (BSIs) including central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, according to the association, a Louisville, Ky.-based non-profit group that includes all the state’s hospitals.

Titled “On the CUSP: STOP BSI,” the project is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The project uses the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), a strategic framework designed to tap into hospital staff insight while encouraging them to fix problem areas that could pose a potential risk to patients.

After applying the program’s five-step checklist in Michigan at more than 100 intensive care units, the project reduced the rate of BSIs from intravenous lines by two-thirds within three months, the association reported.

The program was implemented in Kentucky in August 2010, with participating hospitals reducing their infection rates to “well below national rates” in the first year, according to the association.

Kentucky Hospital Association is working with the hospitals to prevent infections by ensuring they have the education, training, resources and framework needed to improve safety. The association expanded the program to address catheter-associated urinary tract infections, with 20 Kentucky hospitals participating in this latest collaborative launched in September.

The Kentucky Hospital Association is working in partnership with the Health Research and Educational Trust, the Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group and the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.