Determined infection control efforts by Squamish staff bring “bugs” to their knees
Hard work, balanced with a fun-loving approach to some serious issues has paid dividends for patients, staff and physicians at Squamish General Hospital recently.
Recent reports show that staff and physicians are committed to Infection Control best practices and have produced the following results:
- Zero cases of MRSA and C.difficile colonizations/infections since Jan. 1 of this year
- Steadily increasing hand hygiene compliance scores, with a plateau of approx. 90 per cent reached and maintained since Jan. 1 as well. (May 2014 audit results were actually 100% for physicians; 91% for nursing staff; and, 67% for ‘others’)
What accounts for the great performance and strides made?
“We have an infection control practitioner at SGH who spends a great deal of time engaging staff and physicians in the hand hygiene program”, says Chantale Pamplin, Coastal Director for Quality and Patient Care. “In addition, the Releasing Time to Care platform in practice at SGH has enabled a strong culture of quality and safety”.
With one third of health-care-acquired infections preventable by good hand hygiene and an average treatment cost of $10,000 – $24,000 per patient who gets an infection, this work has quickly added up to some significant savings as well as improved patient outcomes.
“It takes the whole team to achieve these stellar results,” says Squamish Infection Control Practitioner Sandie Jackson. “From the environmental cleaning people, to hand hygiene by all staff and visitors. I’m very proud of all the staff for their determined efforts to protect our patients.”
