Nurse-Sensitive Indicator Quality Improvement Toolkit: A Scalable Solution to Improve Health Care-Associated Infections.

Background: Existing best practices to monitor and prevent health care-associated infections (HAIs) were ineffective during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased patient susceptibility toward infections, reduced resources, and increased use of agency nurses.

Problem: A review of the US hospitals revealed a 60% increase in central line-associate bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and a 43% increase in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) in 2020. A large, academic, level 1 trauma center in Houston, Texas, experienced similar challenges at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Implementing a Robust Process Improvement Program in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Reduce Harm.

Introduction: Preventable harm continues to occur with critically ill neonates despite efforts by hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to improve processes and reduce harm. Attaining significant and sustainable improvements will require training including leadership support, mentoring, and patient family engagement to improve care processes. This paper describes the implementation of a robust process improvement (RPI) program in the NICU to reduce harm.