Taking Action Against Hospital Acquired Infection

With fast track funding by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, five research collaboratives comprised of over 70 academic medical centers, community hospital systems, and other health-care organizations from across the nation are investigating various strategies to prevent these infections, which can range from bothersome to deadly. But what approaches work the best and in what settings? And how can effective change be implemented and spread?

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute, Inc., the Roudebush VA Medical Center and the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Engineering and Technology have been tapped by AHRQ to serve as the national resource center for its multiple collaborative work to prevent hospital acquired infection. Indiana researchers will work to develop data collection tools and collect information to provide technical assistance as well as to identify effective implementation strategies developed by the five hospital acquired infection prevention collaboratives.

The Indianapolis-based team will use their expertise with the tools of evidence-based medicine, informatics and systems engineering to help the hospital-acquired infection collaboratives determine what are the best practices and how best to implement these practices at hospitals large and small, urban and rural, public and private.

Dr. Bradley N. Doebbeling is joined in this effort by Jaime Workman, M.S., associate professor of technology, School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI; Heather Hagg, M.S., research scientist at the VA Center of Excellence; Mindy Flanagan, Ph.D., research scientist, IU Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research, Regenstrief Institute, Shawn Hoke, B.A., senior program manager, Regenstrief Institute, and others.

The ultimate goal is to share lessons learned about successes, barriers and challenges in implementing and maintaining strategies that decrease the likelihood of patients acquiring an infection during a hospital stay.