University Hospital Zurich
Raemistrasse 100 Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
German Hospital Service
Destouchesstr. 1 Munchen, Bayern (Germany)
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Trust
162 City Road London, Greater London (UK)
Flinders Medical Centre
Flinders Drive, Bedford Park South Australia (Australia)
Hawkes Bay ICU leads NZ in clinical quality
Clinicians at Hawkes Bay Hospitals Intensive Care Unit ICU are amongst the first in the country to have eliminated hospitalacquired intensive care bloodstream infections in their patients for a whole year
Intensive Care specialist Ross Freebairn said a year without a patient having bloodstream infection associated with a catheter in a large vein is a significant milestone
Patients who are admitted to ICU are extremely sick and many critically More than half the patients in our ICU will need a central vein catheter Getting a bloodstream infection from a central vein catheter known as Central Line Associated Bacteraemia or CLAB not only increases hospital length of stay and costs up to 50000 per patient but also carries an additional significant mortality Dr Freebairn said
quotAvoiding complications like serious infections improves patient care and health quality while at the same time reducing costs A motivated and clinically focused team can deliver real health benefits to our sickest patients This cannot be achieved without a combination of both high quality dedicated nursing staff and specialised medical expertise We need to improve efficiency without compromising patient care preventing unnecessary infections is one way to do bothquot he said
Dr Freebairn said antibiotic resistance was also a significant clinical risk and cost to Intensive Care services quotWe need to avoid unnecessary antibiotic use by preventing infections Excessive antibiotic use will not only increase pharmacy costs but will also fuel future antibiotic resistance This is something we simply cannot afford quot
Dr Michael Park and Associate Clinical Nurse Manager Anne Stuart lead Hawkes Bay ICU as part of the national ICU collaborative to prevent CLAB
The project is supported by the Health Quality and Safety Commission New Zealand and is one of the first projects to improve collaboration between all New Zealand Intensive Care Units
Date : 09 May, 2012
Reference : http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/hawkes-bay-icu-leads-nz-clinical-quality/5/122795