PAGE 90 JOURNAL OF VASCULAR NURSING JUNE 2011www.jvascnurs.net

Poster AbstAnnual Conv

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Program: 1

Evaluating Patient Awareness: Hand Hygiene, MDROsand Isolation Procedures

Ashraf Abbas, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC, Margie Armstrong, MSN,ACNP-BCMichael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston,Texas

Hospital-acquired infections caused by multidrug-resistantorganisms (MDRO) pose a significant challenge to healthcaresystems and negatively affect patient outcomes that in turn causesuffering, incapacity and death. Such infections impose an enor-mous financial burden on both healthcare systems and on societyin general, because of increased direct costs due to prolongationof illness and treatment in hospital. Hospital-acquired infectionscause indirect costs due to loss of productivity and societal costsdue to morbidity and mortality. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention reports that ‘‘hospital-acquired infections are adversepatient events that affect approximately 2 million persons annu-ally.’’ The financial burden on society is significant. The annualeconomic burden of healthcare-associated infections in Massa-chusetts, for example, ranged from approximately $200 millionto more than $400million. The prevention and control of MDROsis a national priority that requires all healthcare facilities to as-sume responsibility. Successful prevention and control ofMDROs involve a variety of combined interventions that includehand washing, use of contact precautions, active surveillancecultures, enhanced environmental cleaning, improvements incommunications about patients with MDROs within and betweenhealthcare facilities and educational venues. A major emphasison successful eradication and control ofMDROs is based on theseinterventions, yet an extensive literature review reveals littleabout evaluating patients’ awareness of hand hygiene, MDROs,isolation procedures and their perception of how their providersfollow the guidelines.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate patients’awareness regarding MDROs, isolation procedures and handhygiene.

Methods: A patient survey was developed and piloted in anin-patient population on acute floors at a large teaching facilityin an urban setting. The patients and the family members wereasked specific questions regarding hand hygiene, MDROs and

ociety for Vascular Nursing, Inc.

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the hospital’s isolation procedures. They were also asked to ratethe percentage of time the providers followed guidelines.

Findings: The survey included 60 participants. Among theparticipants, 20% reported they did not see providers wash orgel their hands when entering their rooms. In addition, 60% re-ported they have no knowledge of MDROs (e.g., C-Difficileand Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus), and 78%reported that they did not know what ‘‘being in isolation’’ meantor if they were in any type of isolation. The MDRO Risk Assess-ment reveals that the hospital requires improvement in the educa-tion of patients and staff about hand hygiene, isolation practicesand MDROs.

Recommendations: The recommendations were to developeducational pamphlets regarding hand hygiene practices; to pro-vide one-on-one education to patients, families and staff; and toplace signs in the patients’ rooms that encouraged the patientsand family members to remind the healthcare providers to washtheir hands.

Program: 2

Utilization of a Rapid-Response Team in a Tertiary CareReferral Center

Ashraf Abbas, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC, Paulette Chua, RN, NPMichael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston,Texas

The implementation of a rapid-response team (RRT) has be-come a popular patient-safety goal initiative at many healthcarefacilities. It has become a topic of interest recently because TheInstitute for Healthcare Improvement and the Joint Commissionhas recommended that hospitals implement RRT as part of thestrategies to reduce preventable in-hospital deaths. The RRTbrings Intensive Care Unit (ICU)-level care to the bedside ofcritically ill patients using a multidisciplinary team approach.The purpose of RRT is to provide immediate care to patients onthe medical/surgical ward who show clinical signs of deteriora-tion and clinical instability.

Methods: At a large teaching facility in an urban setting,the RRT was implemented and piloted on August 1, 2008 ona single medicine ward. In December, 2008, more units wereadded to the pilot study, and on January 1, 2009, the RRTwas rolled out hospital-wide, which at this facility includedthe Community Living Center (CLC) and outpatient clinics.To provide efficacy of RRT in reducing preventable inpatientdeaths, data were collected on multiple variables, which in-cluded location of call activation, type of emergency, time ofcalls, response time, duration of interventions, patient out-comes and disposition.