LAKE FOREST, Ill., July 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hospira, Inc.
(NYSE: HSP), a leading provider of clinical information and
medication delivery technologies, today announced a study showing
how the TheraDoc™ clinical surveillance system helped clinicians at
Memorial Hospital Miramar reduce catheter-related infections, which
correlated with an increase in infection-control interventions. The
hospital, which used TheraDoc to electronically track the number of
interventions and catheters removed, as well as infection rates, is
reporting the results in a poster presentation at the 2010
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
(APIC) annual conference in New
Orleans July 11–15.
Memorial Hospital Miramar, a 178-bed facility in South Florida, began using the TheraDoc
Infection Control Assistant™ in 2008 to electronically record
requests to remove urinary and central line catheters, and to
document catheter-related urinary tract and bloodstream infections.
Intervention requests were made by the hospital's infection
preventionist, who attended daily rounds with the medical teams and
often suggested the removal of urinary and central line catheters
to help reduce infection risk. Months with more interventions were
associated with fewer catheter-related infections, providing data
to support infection-prevention efforts.
Catheter-associated infections are a significant problem for
hospitals. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) account for 40 percent
of the healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) in the United States,(1) and 250,000 to 500,000
catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CABIs) occur in the
nation each year. In addition to improving patient safety, avoiding
these infections can result in significant cost savings for
hospitals -- costs for each UTI and CABI are estimated at
$600 and up to $29,000, respectively.(2)
According to Alex Chavez, C.I.C.,
infection-control practitioner at Memorial Hospital Miramar,
preventing catheter-related infections is a focus for infection
preventionists, but manually documenting and assessing the impact
of interventions on infection rates can be challenging. When Chavez
learned that the hospital was using TheraDoc to assess pharmacy
interventions, he realized that the technology could do the same
for infection prevention.
"The ability to electronically document interventions and then
tie them to reduced infection rates is critical," Chavez said.
"TheraDoc helps us quantify the value of infection preventionists
in improving patient care and demonstrates the importance of
interactions between infection preventionists and clinical
staff."
Memorial Hospital Miramar, part of Memorial Healthcare System,
has been using TheraDoc for infection prevention since 2008.
TheraDoc automates the collection and analysis of clinical data
from a range of sources within the hospital and alerts caregivers
to clinically significant changes in patients' conditions that need
to be addressed. The software also helps coordinate communication
among care teams and hospital executives, and facilitates reporting
to public health officials and quality organizations.
"Memorial Healthcare's innovative use of the TheraDoc clinical
surveillance platform spans many areas of patient care -- from
documenting infection prevention and pharmacy activities and
meeting pediatric asthma core quality measures, to tracking H1N1
influenza cases," said Stanley
Pestotnik, M.S., R.Ph., general manager, TheraDoc. "Its
success with these initiatives illustrates the versatility of the
TheraDoc platform to help clinicians quickly address quality and
patient safety challenges that hospitals face every day."
Other abstracts related to TheraDoc being presented at the 2010
APIC meeting include:
- Can Automated Surveillance Software Assist with Cohorting
Patients with Multidrug-Resistant Organisms? Poster #12-128,
Hahnamann University Hospital.
- Does an Automated Infection Surveillance System Benefit a
Hospital with Limited Information System Resources? Poster #12-131,
Hahnamann University Hospital.
With the patented TheraDoc Expert System Platform™ as the
engine, the Infection Control Assistant complements several
hospital surveillance modules powered by TheraDoc, including the
ADE Assistant™, Clinical Alerts Assistant™, Antibiotic Assistant™
and the company's newest TheraDoc module, the Anticoagulation
Assistant™. With 1.7 million HAIs occurring annually, clinicians at
the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions used Infection Control
Assistant to help reduce HAI-confirmation time by 50 percent while
achieving 98 percent accuracy of infection identification.(3),(4)
For more information about the TheraDoc platform, visit
www.theradoc.com.
About Hospira
Hospira, Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical and
medication delivery company dedicated to Advancing Wellness™. As
the world leader in specialty generic injectable pharmaceuticals,
Hospira offers one of the broadest portfolios of generic acute-care
and oncology injectables, as well as integrated infusion therapy
and medication management solutions. Through its products, Hospira
helps improve the safety, cost and productivity of patient care.
The company is headquartered in Lake
Forest, Ill., and has approximately 13,500 employees. Learn
more at www.hospira.com.
(1) Johnson J, Kuskowski M, Wilt T. Systematic review:
antimicrobial urinary catheters to prevent catheter-associated
urinary tract infection in hospitalized patients. Ann Intern
Med. Jan. 17
2006;144:116–126.
(2) Weinstein R. An
evidence-based approach to the prevention of central
line-associated bloodstream infections in hospitalized patients.
http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/705882. Accessed
May 19, 2010.
(3) Klevens RM, Edwards JR, et. al. Estimating health
care-associated infections and deaths in U.S. hospitals. Public
Health Reports: Volume 122, March–April 2007.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/Scott_CostPaper.pdf Accessed
Nov. 4, 2009.
(4) Xiaoyan S, Mackie K, et. al. Benefits of using TheraDoc to
assist in surveillance for central line associated nomsocomial
bloodstream Infections (CA-BSIs). 17th Annual Scientific Session.
SHEA, 2006.
SOURCE Hospira, Inc.