A polymicrobial fungal outbreak in a regional burn center after Hurricane Sandy.

Objective: To describe a polymicrobial fungal outbreak after Hurricane Sandy.

Design: An observational concurrent outbreak investigation and retrospective descriptive review.

Setting: A regional burn intensive care unit that serves the greater Baltimore area, admitting 350-450 burn patients annually.

Use of Implementation Science for a Sustained Reduction of Central-Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in a High-Volume, Regional Burn Unit.

OBJECTIVE We describe the use of implementation science at the unit level and organizational level to guide an intervention to reduce central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in a high-volume, regional, burn intensive care unit (BICU). DESIGN A single center observational quasi-experimental study. SETTING A regional BICU in Maryland serving 300-400 burn patients annually.

Use of pagers with an alarm escalation system to reduce cardiac monitor alarm signals.

Alarm fatigue desensitizes nurses to alarm signals and presents potential for patient harm. This project describes an innovative method of communicating cardiac monitor alarms to pagers using an alarm escalation algorithm. This innovation was tested on 2 surgical progressive care units over a 6-month period.