On June 26, Southern California Hospital at Culver City (SCHCC) announced that it has reached a noteworthy milestone for low rates of two healthcare-associated infections (HAI). SCHCC has now achieved more than 1,000 days free of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) and more than 750 days free of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI).
A press release on the announcement says that “SCHCC's dedication to detecting and preventing HAIs has led to ongoing quality improvements in its clinical practice, medical procedures, and infection prevention efforts. These include improvements to risk assessment and surveillance activities, education, environmental cleaning, lab testing, and wearing of personal protective equipment.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reported that CAUTI and CLABSI are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, healthcare costs, and length of stay.
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) utilizes the National Healthcare Safety Network standard infection ration (SIR) as the standard measure to track healthcare-associated infections,” the release adds. “CMS expects an SIR rate of zero for both CLABSI and CAUTI. The average California hospital has a CLABSI SIR rate of 0.769 (0.738 nationally) and a CAUTI SIR rate of 0.710 (0.593 nationally). SCHCC has maintained the CMS expected rate of zero for more than three years for CLABSI and more than two years for CAUTI. These significant milestones demonstrate the quality of patient care at SCHCC compared to other hospitals.”
