Hospital Associated Infections are a worldwide health concern especially because of their significant effects on mortality and morbidity. According to Arefian et al. (2019), HAIs tend to increase the treatment costs of an individual as well as prolong their length of stay in hospitals. Therefore, minimizing the chances of developing healthcare-associated infections is part of patient safety initiatives in various states. However, the safety measure is further endangered by HAI-associated pathogens increasing drug resistance. Additionally, persistent recontamination of the healthcare institutions surfaces highly contributes to the transmissions processes of the HAIs, and they seem to be resistant to the conventional mode of cleaning and some occasions favoring the selection of certain types of microbial drug-resistant microbial strains (Arefian et al., 2019).
In the Sanford Jackson Medical Center (SJMC), the mode of cleaning hospital surfaces is chemical-based, although the method selectively leaves microbial strains in the surface that are associated with high cases of hospital-associated infections as well as costs due to the increased length of stay (Caselli et al., 2018). Currently, the increased length of stay due to HAIs is approximately 28 days with cost highly dependent on the hospital department (Arefian et al., 2019). Therefore, a probiotic method of cleaning hospital surfaces is necessary for the SJMC to minimize high costs and length of stay associated with HAIs.
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Background Discussion
HAIs are a worldwide concern, which impairs the clinical results of hospitalized patients by 15% worldwide (Caselli et al., 2018). For example, in analyzes of the HAI’s incidences in Italian hospitals shows a 5-10% incidences of the infections with a mortality rate of almost 30%. Nonetheless, hospital delays due to increased length of stay as a result of HAIs also increase the risks of people in contraction other diseases. According to Arefian et al. (2019), the hospital surfaces tend to be persistently and highly contaminated by various microorganisms, especially because they act as reservoirs allowing the spread of the pathogens by medical personnel, relatives as well as the inpatients. The SJMC currently implements the conventional medical-based type of sanitation to control their surface contaminations with it many limitations that allows the recontamination phenomenon. The chemical-approach of cleaning is associated with negative effects as well as contributes to the selective eradication of pathogens thus contributing to increasing rates of the multi-drug resistance pathogens (Caselli et al., 2018).
Rethinking the hospital surfaces as likened to the human health, as encouraged the implementation of the Probiotic Cleaning Hygiene Systems (PCHS), which works towards replacing the harmful microbial organisms with the harmless types, which tend to be the more effective means of preventing the HAIs cases (Caselli et al., 2018). There exist various types of HAIs including bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, skin, and soft tissue diseases, systematic –clinical sepsis, reproductive tract infections, pneumonia, bone and joint gastrointestinal, and many others (Caselli et al. 2018). According to Voidazan et al. (2020), the HAIs infections resulting from the antibiotic-resistance microbial are rising increasing the mortality rates of the inpatients. Various studies also confirm that the healthcare environment plays a key role in the transmission processes of various infections hence the need to implement the probiotic method of cleaning in SJMC hospital.
Stakeholders
Several stakeholders in the healthcare institution will directly be affected by the PCHS project. Carrie McLeod, who is a senior director in Sanford community benefits and health improvement, will be highly involved with the project to see to its effectiveness in minimizing the healthcare-associated infections. JoAnn Kunkel, Sanford’s Health chief financial officer, will participate in the project offering financial advice as well as help with the resources where necessary. The improvement advisor in Sanford Vermillion, Julie Girard will also work hand in hand with the implementers of the PCHS project to ensure that they are sticking to the criteria and plans to ensure they achieve the desired outcomes. More so, Gwen Post, the director of nursing and clinical services will be involved in the project to act as the resource person in hinting on various Healthcare-Associated Infections identified during the application of the PCHS approach in cleaning the hospital surfaces.
Outcome Statement
The PCHS plan aims to; reduce the cases of Healthcare-Associated Infections by 10% by the end of seven weeks while minimizing the cost associated with elongated stay from the various hospital wards.
To measure the outcome, all the patients admitted in the various wards in the PCHS period are included in the research, hence, surveyed for the HAIs development, without any discrimination in terms of gender and age while keeping every patient’s identity anonymous.
Evaluation of the Plan
The evaluation process refers to the objective and systematic assessment of a completed or an ongoing plan analyzing its design, implementation as well as the outcome (Arefian et al., 2019). The evaluation process aim is to determine the fulfillment as well as the relevance to the objectives, effectiveness, development efficiency, and sustainability. The evaluation of the PCHS project success involves the process of comparing and analyzing the HAIs cases recorded in the various SJMC's healthcare departments prior and after the implementation of the PCHS approach in cleaning healthcare surfaces for the 7 weeks. Through analyzing the data obtained on the HAIs cases pre-PCHS and during the PCHS one will determine whether the adoption of a probiotic cleaning system led to a decrease in the HAIs cases by 10% from the cases identified before the implementation of the approach.
Implementing the probiotic mode of cleaning in SJMC hospital is likely to reduce the cases of healthcare-associated infections, in which the hospital surfaces act as the main reservoir in the transmission processes. The healthcare surfaces are contaminated from the healthcare workers, inpatients as well as the relatives. Nonetheless, the application of inappropriate approaches to cleaning surfaces causes a selection of the pathogens that spread and thrive within the healthcare institution causing HAIs. Therefore, the adoption of the PCHS approach has shown positive results in various healthcare institutions across the world hence, an approach necessary in SJMC hospital.
References
Arefian, H., Hagel, S., Fischer, D., Scherag, A., Brunkhorst, F. M., Maschmann, J., & Hartmann, M. (2019). Estimating extra length of stay due to healthcare-associated infections before and after implementation of a hospital-wide infection control program. PloS one , 14 (5). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6524816/
Caselli, E., Arnoldo, L., Rognoni, C., D’Accolti, M., Soffritti, I., Lanzoni, L., ... & Mazzacane, S. (2019). Impact of probiotic-based hospital sanitation on antimicrobial resistance and HAI-associated antimicrobial consumption and costs: a multicenter study. Infection and Drug Resistance , 12 , 501.
Caselli, E., Brusaferro, S., Coccagna, M., Arnoldo, L., Berloco, F., Antonioli, P., ... & Conte, A. (2018). Reducing healthcare-associated infections incidence by a probiotic-based sanitation system: A multicentre, prospective, intervention study. PLoS One , 13 (7).
Voidazan, S., Albu, S., Toth, R., Grigorescu, B., Rachita, A., & Moldovan, I. (2020). Healthcare-Associated Infections—A New Pathology in Medical Practice?. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 760.
