The Maryland Patient Safety Center's Clean Collaborative joined 17 acute care hospitals, three long-term care facilities, and four ambulatory surgical centers to help reduce healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates across the state, according to an article on the Science Direct website.
According to the organization’s website, over the past decade, there has been a growing body of evidence suggesting that contamination of environmental surfaces throughout healthcare facilities plays an important role in the transmission of key healthcare-associated pathogens.
The Clean Collaborative’s goals for the recent partnership project included:
• Identifying best management practices (BMPs) for cleaning and disinfecting surface areas
• Educating and promoting BMPs via webinars, factsheets, and a scholarly paper
• Improving the cleanliness of the facility
• Reducing incidence of facility acquired MRSA, VRE and C. diff
During the project, participants were asked to implement and validate BMPs utilizing a Clean Collaborative-approved verification technology. Participants collected quantitative data on a monthly basis for one year. The Clean Collaborative project team then collected, analyzed and graphically depicted the data to identify trends regarding the cleanliness of high-touch areas and levels of facility acquired MRSA, VRE and C.diff.
As a result of the partnership, 88 percent of participating healthcare facilities achieved the program goal of a 10 percent HAI reductions in relative light units.
Participating facilities also achieved a 14.2 percent decrease in C. diff rates compared to a 5.9 decrease among non-participating Maryland facilities.
The Collaborative unexpectedly also found that window sills in patient rooms, which are not considered a high-touch surface, were observed to have higher levels of biofilm.
Designing for Access: Addressing Pharmacy Deserts with Flexible Solutions
Baylor Scott & White Health Set to Open New Texas Medical Center 
The Future of Backup Power Systems in Healthcare Facilities
Infection Control is Key to Ongoing Measles Outbreak
Kaiser Permanente to Open New Parker Medical Offices