According to a new research, collecting and reporting data to federal health agencies is not the soundest of strategies. The study was presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
The research was conducted by infection preventionists at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset. They tabulated the time it took to complete reports on efforts to reduce healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) and determined that it took approximately five hours each day to do so. The researchers claim that if hospitals focused on ensuring the implementation and adherence to basic infection prevention practices such as hand hygiene, this time would be better spent then on gathering and reporting data.
They evaluated a number of laboratory reports such as urine, blood, wound and sputum that were received and reviewed in July, August, and December 2013 and January 2014. Based on their calculation, the total time it took to complete these reports amounted to 118.29 hours each month.
"HAI reporting exposes problems, drives improvements, and allows for benchmarking against national targets. But without adequate staffing, the burden of reporting takes time away from infection prevention activities that protect patients at the bedside," stated lead author, Sharon L. Parrillo, R.N.. assistant director, Infection Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset.
Source: Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
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