Three professional health organizations awarded the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics the 2013 Partnership in Prevention Award Tuesday for its steps forward in reducing health care associated infections.
The organizations praised the hospital for executing interventions that helped prevent two of the most common health care associated infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia in the neuroscience intensive care unit and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, according to a news release.
UW Hospital staff implemented several initiatives, which helped decrease catheter-associated urinary tract infections more than 25 percent from 2011 to 2012, including daily rounds on patients with internal catheters and including catheter-removal protocols in electronic health records.
Similar initiatives were used to effectively reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia cases, and the hospital has expanded use of the programs to the medical-surgical intensive care unit as well.
“It’s recognition of the hard work the entire organization has put in for several years to reduce infections,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, the hospital’s infection-control chief, in the release.
