By Healthcare Facilities Today

University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and American University researchers have partnered to develop a framework to help prevent infections acquired by hospitalized patients, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.

The researchers utilized computer models that simulate the interactions between patients and healthcare workers to determine if these interactions are a source for spreading multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). Their study shows a correlation of a “sparse, social network structure” with low infection transmission rates, the article said.

 This study comes in advance of Health and Human Services Department’s 2015 launch and enforcement of a new initiative that penalizes hospitals at an estimated average rate of $208,642 for violating specific requirements for infection control.

 The study manipulated and tracked the dynamics of the social network in a mid-Atlantic hospital’s intensive care unit, the article said. Researchers focused on interactions between patients and healthcare workers and the multiple competing factors that can affect transmission.

The next step, according to the study, is to enable hospitals to adapt this framework, which is based on maximizing staff-to-patient ratio to ensure fewer nurses and physicians come in contact with each patient.

Read the article.