Targeting Zero

A philosophy that every healthcare institution should be working toward a goal of zero healthcare acquired infections.
It is understood that not all HAIs (hosital acquired infections) are preventable.

APIC (association for Professionals in infection control) ofers many courses, webinars, and guidelines how to study and track HAIs.

The importance of surveillance with HAIs cannot be emphasized enough.
There are manual systems and computer generated systems.
I personally work on the manual system. My company which has many hospitals does not
have in place a computer generated infection control surveillance.
My hospital has an electronic medical record. Radiology, pharmacy, nursing, medicine, and
rehab are all included in this record. The lab system is an independent computer
system.

By manually collecting data one must:
check lab workdaily
correlate antibiotic therapy to labwork
count IV and PICC line days and number of patients and calulate out
count foley catheter patients and foley catheter days and calculate out
manually watch HH and PPE and calculate satistics
make sure every patient admitted to the hospital has lab work to allow for continuity
of care


It takes a team to target zero. Everyone who takes care of a patient is included. From
the dietary aide to nurses aide, to nurse, and physician.