Improving Mortality Through a Multihospital, Collaborative Quality Improvement Project.

Improving hospital mortality is a key focus of quality and safety efforts at both the local and national level. Structured interventions can assist organizations in determining whether interventional efforts have led to sustained improvement. The PARiHS framework (Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services) can assist organizations in implementing research into practice.

How frequently should sink drains be disinfected?

Previously, we showed that disinfection of sink drains is effective at decreasing bacterial loads. Here, we report our evaluation of the ideal frequency of sink-drain disinfection and our comparison of 2 different hydrogen peroxide disinfectants.

Use of a cohorting-unit and systematic surveillance cultures to control a Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Enterobacteriaceae outbreak.

Objective: Describe the epidemiological and molecular characteristics of an outbreak of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing organisms and the novel use of a cohorting unit for its control.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: A 566-room academic teaching facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Immediate impact of healthcare-facility-onset Clostridium difficile laboratory-identified events reporting methodology change on standardized infection ratios.

In 2018, the Clostridium difficile LabID event methodology changed so that hospitals doing 2-step tests, nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) plus enzyme immunofluorescence assay (EIA), had their adjustment modified to EIA-based tests, and only positive final tests (eg, EIA) were counted in the numerator. We report the immediate impact of this methodological change at 3 Milwaukee hospitals.