Clearfield Hospital is performing well when it comes to reducing hospital-acquired infections, according to a report released by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.

Here, registered nurse Sharon Goodman, who has been with the hospital for 17 years, looks at an intravenous pump. She is dressed in personal protective equipment, which is used by hospital staff to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses from one patient to another.   

To learn more about what Clearfield Hospital is doing to prevent hospital-acquired infections, please contact Sue Jezewski, BSN, Clearfield Hospital infection control/employee health manager, at 814.768.2494.

On April 10, The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), an agency that collects, analyzes and reports quality data, released its second hospital-specific report on hospital-acquired infections.

The data collection period focused on infections that were contracted by patients in 2006. Data was collected for each of Pennsylvania’s 165 acute care hospitals.

A hospital-acquired infection is an infection that a patient contracts while hospitalized. These infections represent a direct threat to patient safety and health care quality, according to Sue Jezewski, BSN, Clearfield Hospital infection control/employee health manager.

“We acknowledge the importance of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council’s latest report. Benchmarks such as this report help to ensure that the communities we serve are receiving safe and quality health care,” Ms. Jezewski said.

In the PHC4 report, Clearfield Hospital scored better than statewide averages for urinary tract, pneumonia, bloodstream, surgical site and gastrointestinal hospital-acquired infections.

Some highlights of Clearfield Hospital’s performance are:

• The state average for urinary tract infections is 8.7 patients per 1,000 cases; Clearfield Hospital’s rate in that measurement is 5.8 per 1,000 cases.
• Statewide, an average of 2.1 patients per 1,000 contracted pneumonia while hospitalized; Clearfield Hospital’s rate was 1.6 per 1,000 cases.
• Clearfield Hospital had a rate of zero for bloodstream infections; the statewide average for that measurement is 1.9.
• The state surgical site infection rate average is 4.2 per 1,000 cases; Clearfield Hospital’s surgical site infection rate in the PHC4 report was 1.3 per 1,000. In 2007, the hospital further improved that measurement, which now stands at 0.2 percent.

While Clearfield Hospital scored below statewide averages on these measures, Ms. Jezewski emphasized that the infection control team believes even one infection is one too many.

“Performance improvement is a top priority for Clearfield Hospital. We continuously work toward improvement because we believe our patients deserve the best,” she said.

She also said that since the time the data was collected, the hospital has improved the way it screens patients during the admissions process in order to determine whether a patient has an infection prior to entering the hospital.

“The sooner an infection is diagnosed, the sooner we can begin treatment,” she said.

In addition to strict infection control practices such as frequent hand washing and using gloves and properly sterilized equipment, Clearfield Hospital also uses an electronic surveillance system to reduce hospital-acquired infections.

This system pinpoints sources of infections by electronically monitoring real-time and historical clinical data, and it alerts infection control professionals to the processes of care that increase the risk of infections.

This service frees a hospital’s infection control staff from manual data collection practices and gets them onto the floors and into the rooms of hospitals so they can find and prevent the causes of the hospital-acquired infections, according to Ms. Jezewski.

In July of 2007, Gov. Edward Rendell and the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted Act 52 to adopt a comprehensive approach to the problem of hospital-acquired infections.

The act mandates that hospitals and nursing homes make monthly infection reports to the Centers for Disease Control, and requires that hospitals, nursing homes and ambulatory surgical facilities develop infection-control plans.

“We applaud legislation and improvement measures such as Act 52 that increase awareness and make sure all healthcare facilities adhere to the highest standard of care,” Ms. Jezewski said.

To learn more about what Clearfield Hospital is doing to prevent hospital-acquired infections, please contact Ms. Jezewski at 814.768.2494.