Training Care Facility Employees with the Goal of Lowering Healthcare-Associated Infections Rates

Introduction

Also referred to as hospital infection or nosocomial, healthcare-associated infections (HAI) is an infection that occurs in a patient when in the process of obtaining care in a care facility or hospital which was incubating or present at the time they were getting admitted (Ojanperä et al., 2020).  HAI can affect patients in any kind of environment where they obtain healthcare services and can equally appear in them after discharge. Improta et al. (2018) note that HAIs occur in all care environments, like surgical centers, hospitals, long-term healthcare facilities (like rehabilitation facilities and nursing homes), and ambulatory clinics. Additionally, they include occupational infections among healthcare staff. Statistics show that each year, hundreds of millions of patients across the globe are affected by HAI (Rizzo et al., 2019), with HAI burden being a number of folds higher in middle- and low-income nations compared to their high-income counterparts (Ojanperä et al., 2020). Owing to this worrying trend, it is globally accepted that there is an urgent need for action(s) to control and prevent the spreading of antibiotic resistant disease-causing microorganisms. Within the healthcare sector, effective and efficient infection prevention and control (IPC) is among the solutions. To effectively prevent and control HAI, training for employees at a medical facility is of paramount need. It is against this backdrop that this proposal recommends conduction of three-day training for Central Dallas Medical Center (CDMC) staff on how they can effectively lower their facilities’ HAI’s rate.

HAI and Incidence

The undesirable and occurrence complications from HAI have well been recognized in the literature for a number of decades.  HAI’s occurrence continues escalating at a worrying rate. HAI are developed during a healthcare treatment course and result in substantial patient sicknesses and deaths (mortality and morbidity), necessitate extra therapeutic and diagnostic interventions, and extended hospital stays duration, which produce extra costs to the ones that are already incurred by patients (Montella et al., 2017). Owing to their severe effects both on care facilities and patients, another factor that motivate healthcare facilities to leverage HAI control and prevention efforts is the increasing public pressure upon countries to enact legislations requiring care facilities to disclose care facility – specific mortality and morbidity rates (Improta et al., 2018). Thus, it is necessary that HAI be mitigated at all costs lest it blows beyond proportion. One way to mitigate HAI spread is training. Having spoken with CDMC’s human resources director, Ms. Jocelyn Hightower, this proposal provides the purpose and benefits of a training session by our company, Training World, Inc, an international workplace training company with more than 200 part- and full-time employees, on CDMC’s employees.

The Purpose of the Training

The training will be aimed at sensitizing CDMC’s employees on the need to ensure that HAI rates are kept as low as possible. Using statistics and figures, we will justify the need to keep the rates lower. For instance, we will explain to the employees that on a daily basis, HAI results in elongated care facility stays, increased resistance of micro-organisms to anti-microbial, long-term disabilities, huge extra costs for healthcare systems, high medication/treatment costs for patients along with their family members, as well as unnecessary deaths (Conlon-Bingham et al., 2019). All patients that are hospitalized are vulnerable to contracting a nosocomial contagion.

The training will also assist employees understand appreciate the fact that the degree of susceptibility varies from one patient to another: the elderly, young children, and individuals with compromised immune systems are extra likely to acquire an infection (Rizzo et al., 2019). Other risk factors include long care facility stays, failure of health care employees to properly wash or sanitize their hands using alcohol-based sanitizers, the employment of indwelling catheters, and overuse of antibiotics (Bogdanić & Balen Topić, 2018). In America care facilities, the centers for Disease Control (CDC) approximates that HAI contribute for about 1.8 million infections as well as 100,000 linked deaths yearly (Montella et al., 2017). Of these statistics, 32% of all healthcare-obtained infection are UTIs (urinary tract infections), 22% surgical site infections, 15% pneumonia, and 14% bloodstream infections (Conlon-Bingham et al., 2019). Another study by Bogdanić and Balen Topić (2018) revealed that patients who contract infections from surgery tend spend about 6.5 days more in hospital, are extra likely to be readmitted after hospital discharge, as well as twice as likely to lose their lives. Similarly, surgical patients who contract infections are about 60% more likely to get admission to a healthcare facility’s intensive care unit (ICU) (Litwin et al., 2021). Rizzo et al. (2019) add that surgical infections account for about ten billion dollars yearly in health care expenditures.

By understanding the factors associated with HAI, CDMC‘s workers will better understand how to possibly deal with every single factor. From the foregoing, studies have associated HAI with various factors, like catheters (urinary, endotracheal, and bloodstream), surgery, injection, healthcare environments that are not properly cleaned, healthcare workers to patient transfer, and antibiotic overuse (Ojanperä et al., 2020). Regarding overuse of antibiotics, we will train CDMC’s staff on how they can use or train their visitors and patients the CDC’s checklist for crucial elements of healthcare antibiotic stewardship programs. The staff will be sensitized on the need to systematically evaluate crucial actions and elements to make sure optimal antibiotic prescribing as well as limit misuse and overuse of antibiotics at CDMC. We will propose to CDMC to implement Antibiotic Stewardship Program as recommended by CDC.

Another aim of the training will be to broaden the knowledge and understanding of the various means or HAI transmission. According to Improta et al. (2018), among healthcare personnel and patients, microorganisms are spread from one person to another through four main ways: contact (indirect and direct), airborne spread, respiratory droplets, and common vehicle. By having a broader understanding and knowledge about these transmission channels, CDMC employees will be able to better handle themselves and their patients to avoid transferring or contracting a HAI.

Benefits of the Training

From the training, CDMC’s employees will realize significant benefits. They will, for instance, broaden their understanding about evidence-based practices that can be employed to curb HAI rates. Studies have indicated that a number of HAI can be prevented via strict observance to evidence-based practices. The practices include: healthcare providers properly cleaning their hands with water and soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizers after and before caring for each and every patient; catheters being employed only when needful and removed soonest possible; cleaning patients’ skin when a catheter is being inserted; and care providers wearing masks, gowns, hair covers, gloves, and when necessary (Montella et al., 2017).

Initially, personal protection equipment (PPE) was a fundamental factor in combating infections. Whereas the PPEs are still crucial in controlling infections, Litwin et al. (2021) contend that they are not the most crucial ways of controlling infections in today’s clinical field. According to Ojanperä et al. (2020), the medical field currently needs comprehensive training of healthcare facilities’ staff since training is the most effective and efficient way of preventing HAI. Thus, our company, the Training World, Inc. will conduct training for the CDMC staff on the most advanced control approaches to infections according to the latest data as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies that tackle health related issues. During the training session, CDMC’s employees will learn step-by-step processes of hand washing techniques that will significantly role play in curbing the spread of HAI.

Additionally, those who provide environmental services at the facility will have an opportunity to learn proper disinfecting and cleaning procedures, while CDMC’s direct nursing employees will have an opportunity to acquire techniques that they will be able to  teach to visitors and patients to prevent and control the spread of HAI (Rizzo et al., 2019).  The main reason for training CDMC staff on preventive and control measures, like hand hygiene, is that the measures are low-cost, simple, and effective in most instances in lowering HAI’s rates (Improta et al., 2018). Nonetheless, their effectiveness requires employees’ behavioral change and accountability.

At the facility level and domestic levels, this proposal will benefit CDMC by recommending various perspectives and solutions for reduction HAI rates. The perspectives and solutions from which CDMC’s employees will be able to benefit include identification of local factors (around CDMC) associated with HAI burden, bettering surveillance and reporting systems at the hospital, and making sure minimum requirements with regard to the facilities and resources dedicated for surveillance at CDMC, like microbiology laboratories’ capacity (Conlon-Bingham et al., 2019). Additionally, the employees will learn how to make sure that crucial elements for infection prevention and control are in place at the local area level and the healthcare facility environment levels, precaution standards, like best hand hygiene practices, are properly implemented, staff accountability and education are bettered, and that effective research to validate and adapt surveillance procedures based upon the reality of CDMC’s environment are conducted (Bogdanić & Balen Topić, 2018). Equally, the employees will benefit by understanding the need to carry out research regarding potential engagement of patients along with their families in HAI control and reporting (Montella et al., 2017).

Cost of the Training

HAI are linked to significant burden and costs on healthcare organizations, with billions of dollars used yearly. Not only are the costs financial, but they are also social. According to Conlon-Bingham et al. (2019), employees globally are registering increased absenteeism rates from care facilities as a result of HAI (Bogdanić & Balen Topić, 2018). Health care workers are the principal actors in controlling infections, while environmental services role play as the second in the defense line. To complete the training for CDMC staff, we will offer a package charged at $35,000.00. The $35,000.00 will take care of informational posters for visitors and employees, writing materials for all those who will attend the training, a hall for the training, job training, 24-hour healthcare help line, as well as training manuals/guidelines for attending, absent, and future employees of CDMC. We will also offer a computer program aimed at equipping healthcare facilities in tracking and monitoring HAI rates.

Conclusion

To this end, it is evident that unless measures are taken, HAI are likely to continue wrecking havocs across the world. With the ever increasing cost of health care, obtaining an upper hand upon HAI ought to be the top priority for each and every healthcare facility and administrator. This proposal has shown that, while PPE have traditionally been instrumental in curbing the spread of HAI, training of care facilities’ employees is indispensable and invaluable. In most cases, HAI are preventable, and as such with proper training, CDMC’s employees will be equipped to fight the spread of HAI. With extensive training from our organization, Training World, Inc., CDMC’s employees will properly be trained to control and prevent HAI using various techniques. After the study, we hope to see a decline in HAI among CDMC’s medical workers and environmental service providers. Since an increase in the number of   HAI cases in an organization has a direct correlation with the productivity and absenteeism rates among healthcare workers, the training will ensure that CDMC’s employees. With a healthier staff, CDMC’s attendance to patients will be improved and this will result in healthier patients. Patients will have shorter hospital stays and reduced rate of readmissions since CDMC’s staff will have less missed days from work.