Recovering from an outbreak of a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is one of the most significant challenges an infection preventionist can face. This type of work is important in any type of healthcare setting, but can be especially crucial in long-term facilities like nursing homes, where patients tend to be older and/or more vulnerable and prone to illness. An outbreak of any type of illness can be catastrophic from both a health and financial perspective.
To contain existing outbreaks and prevent future ones, healthcare staff need to find better ways to obtain and understand data related to infection in their facility and ensure best practices for infection prevention are being followed.
Infection rates in nursing homes
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it is estimated that 1 to 3 million serious infections occur every year in long-term care facilities like nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living communities.
Common infections in nursing homes
The most common endemic infections in nursing homes include urinary tract, respiratory and skin and soft tissue infections. Frequently reported illnesses include pneumonia, seasonal influenza, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and diarrheal diseases. (Montoya, Mody 2011).
Other healthcare-associated infections like C.diff can also be a costly issue for both nursing homes and their patients.
How illnesses spread in nursing homes
Staff who do not follow hand hygiene best practices can easily spread germs between patients, especially when handling medical devices like catheters. Poor patient hygiene and a lack of proper disinfection protocols in the facility can also encourage bacteria growth that lead to infections and illness.
CDC guidelines for infection control in nursing homes
The CDC recommends following these basic infection prevention and control guidelines in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities:
- Disinfection and sterilization: Staff should be educated about exposure risks and know when and how to sterilize or disinfect equipment, patient-care devices, and environmental surfaces.
- Environmental infection control: Steps should be taken to keep the air, water, environmental surfaces, and laundry/bedding in the facility clean. Medical waste should be handled and disposed of properly.
- Hand hygiene: Healthcare workers and other staff should always follow hand hygiene best practices.
- Isolation precautions: Education and training on the spread of germs (including proper hand hygiene, PPE, and surveillance) should be provided. Precautions should also be taken to keep illnesses contained as much as possible.
A detailed list of infection prevention guidelines can be found here.
Hand hygiene policy in nursing homes
Following hand hygiene best practices is a primary measure for reducing the risk of infection, but according to the CDC, studies show that on average, healthcare providers clean their hands less than half of the times they should. This puts care facilities at risk of costly HAI outbreaks.
With this in mind, long-term care facilities like nursing homes that want to prevent the spread of infection need to ensure that hand hygiene best practices are being followed. This process should begin with a hand hygiene audit, which is the process of reviewing the rate of hand hygiene compliance. This will give facilities and infection preventionists insights into obstacles for hand hygiene, as well as a benchmark for improvement.
Hand hygiene audits can be done manually, but these manual processes can be time-consuming and prone to human error. An electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system, on the other hand, can accurately capture thousands of hand hygiene events a day and provide healthcare leaders with valuable data that drive improvements to better hand hygiene compliance.
BioVigil, for example, not only monitors hand hygiene compliance but also prompts nurses and other staff in contact with residents to wash or sanitize their hands when entering or leaving a resident’s room. In one study, this electronic solution was found to quickly and significantly increase hand hygiene compliance and reduce rates of C.diff, while also providing valuable data tracing.
To learn more about how BioVigil can help prevent infection in long-term care facilities, download this study from the American Journal of Infection Control or contact us for more information.
Citations
Montoya A, Mody L. Common infections in nursing homes: a review of current issues and challenges. Aging health. 2011 Dec;7(6):889-899. doi: 10.2217/AHE.11.80. PMID: 23264804; PMCID: PMC3526889.