Dirty little freaks

Dirty little freaks (c difficile and MRSA) are having a tough time finding a place to hang out at VGH these days.

Through the CDI initiative and other focused efforts to reduce hospital acquired infections, units T11 and CP8 went from acquiring one to two infections per week per unit to just two infections in 16 weeks.

To celebrate their success, staff from CP8 and T11 A and D, along with a host of friends and supporters, put on a great flash mob at the Jim Pattison Pavilion at VGH on Wednesday June 25, 2014.

“We thought, how can we celebrate this? I suggested a flash mob,” said Christine Neely, the occupational therapist who choreographed the flash mob dance.

“I designed a dance that would work for everyone’s ability level,” said Neely.

Tena Ganovicheff, patient services manager, explained that the great outcomes were achieved mainly through better hand hygiene and more wiping down of surfaces. Unit staff worked with Infection Control to pinpoint hand hygiene and transmission from patient to surface and surface to patient as areas of focus.

“Every night nurses make sure to wipe down charts on these units and we had done good work the previous year with de-cluttering,” said Ganovicheff. 

“The benefits for patients are shorter length of stay, less medication and less functional impact.”

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