Spreading information can help curb HAIs

Research suggests frequent e-mails to facility leaders can help fight hospital-acquired infection outbreaks, according to an article on the Oupatient Surgery website.

The study, led by L. Silvia Munoz-Price, MD, PhD, of the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, was published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. Munoz-Price reported that when a large Florida hospital's infection control director e-mailed weekly comprehensive reports on the situation to head administrators, physicians, nurses and other leaders, the transmission rate fell by 63 percent. 

"These regular, highly visible communications allowed us to create a sense of accountability for new cases that unified both the leadership and providers toward the common goal of decreasing new acquisitions of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii," the study said.

Read the article.