central line associated blood stream infections
why is this a priority for us?
- Central lines are used every day in our hospital to provide antibiotics, IV fluids, and nutrition
- When bacteria enters a central line and gets into the blood stream, a child can become very ill, requiring extra antibiotics, hospitalization, and additional monitoring.
who’s at greatest risk?
- Any patient with a central line. This includes:
- Many of our patients with cancer
- Patients who require lengthy courses of IV antibiotics
- Patients who require nutritional support through an IV
what are we doing to help reduce infections?
- We follow set procedures for placing lines and daily care of lines to help keep lines free from infection
- Procedures include things like:
- Good hand hygiene
- Daily bathing with medicated soap
- Using sterile technique when placing and accessing the line
- We investigate every infection with a small team to understand why we had an infection
what do we measure?
- We measure every infection per 1000 line days
how are we continuing to improve?
- Over the last year, we have had an increase in infections. These have been mostly due to a small group of patients.
- We are trialing new products to better address this group’s needs
- We implemented new training techniques to ensure everyone is being trained exactly the same way.
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