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 assure everyone is being trained exactly the same way.