Good Read: Sapiens- A Brief History of Humanind

I spent the last week plowing through Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. 

This 500 page book is anything but a tome, rather, it is a gripping account of our history through the lens of the cognitive, agricultural, scientific and industrial revolutions that defines much of human history. 

As we further change the world for our purpose (environment, genetic engineering etc) we are left with the scary and challenging question of what do we want (or want to become)?

Now back to more mundane matters, such as my job in the hospital and getting people to wash their hands.

Quantity and /or Quality? The Importance of Publishing Many Papers

I have heard the comment that the quality of papers published is more important than the quantity. Who really knows?

I found this paper in PLOS ONE which aimed to answer the above question with a formal correlation analysis of author publications,citations and impact factor. The greater the number of publications (productivity) the greater the number of citations and the greater the impact factor.  

Like in many aspects of life, success begets success.

Recognizing that 'major impact publications' or scientific breakthroughs are rare events, perhaps the best strategy is to press on at a steady and consistent pace. This should ultimately result in a decent and reasonable contribution to the literature, an academic slow burn of sorts.

Back to it....

System Failure, Accountability and High Reliability in Infection Prevention- Striking the Right Balance

I am going to limit this commentary exclusively to hospital infection prevention. We are searching for high reliability in infection prevention, this means that evidence based risk reduction practices are implemented in a systematic and consistent way.    

To succeed, we need to standardize, educate, implement (this includes providing the materials and infrastructure to support the intended behavior) assess performance and provide non-punitive feedback (particularly when errors occur).

These efforts, without a doubt, improve practice and minimize system failure, but they only go so far.  The last critical step is accountability. Poor performers and recalcitrant outliers must be held accountable by institutional leadership for non-adherence to evidence based, reasonable infection prevention expectations. 

Low reliability infection prevention cannot habitually default to the 'system failure' excuse.

To borrow a quote: The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior that a leader is willing to tolerate.

Satisfice! Let It Be So in Infection Prevention.

Herbert Simon- Nobel Laureate

Lately I have been obsessed with implementation science, heightened safety, infection prevention and high reliability. Those close to me have heard me talk repeatedly about solutions that 'satisfice', a term coined by the late Nobel Laureate, Herbert Simon. 

Satisfice comes from the fusion of two words, satisfy and suffice. Satisficing is a decision making strategy that seeks solutions that are 'good enough'- satisfactory and sufficient for a more realistic world.

We continue to implement many evidence based strategies in infection prevention- hand hygiene, chlorhexidine patient bathing, automated urinary catheter discontinuation orders, central line checklists, and deployment of UVC touchless cleaning technologies. How certain are we that the measures are implemented?

We are unable to ideally observe, document, feedback and cross-check implementation of all strategies as it is physically and logistically not feasible.

Using designated staff and /or electronic data mining, we are able to generate reasonable, automated and scheduled point prevalence reports on nearly all process of care measures and technology deployments. Assessment drives performance and leads to improvement in practice. All of our patient centered infection control outcomes continue to improve.

Infection prevention science must play out in the real world. 

Real life challenges require solutions that satisfice.

VCU Antimicrobial Guide- Coming to a (VCU) Smartphone Near You

We developed an institution specific (using our own antibiogram) online guide for antimicrobial use at VCU Health. 

This point of care guide is available as a link within our electronic medical record. Since its  launch, it has been accessed > 10,000 times over the past year. The project was spearheaded by Dr. Michael Stevens and 3rd year epidemiology fellow Dr. Dan Markley.

We formally assessed the need for transitioning this online guide to a point of care smartphone app, for all VCU providers. The manuscript is now in press at American Journal of Infection Control, available here (PDF).

The VCU antimicrobial smartphone app will launch in 2017.

The goal is to enhance antimicrobial stewardship through point of care, portable guidance, driven by the stewardship program and by the hospital's own antibiogram.

This is no ivory tower academic exercise.

2nd Annual VCU Gordon Archer Research Day

Today was the 2nd Annual VCU Gordon Archer Research Day, hosted by the Infectious Diseases Division at the VCU Larrick Center.

The oral and poster presentations were from infectious diseases, microbiology and immunology. The event was very well attended. 

Diverse and stimulating research ideas were presented spanning hospital epidemiology, bench research, global health, immunology and antimicrobial stewardship, generating discussion and thought, all under the spirit of celebrating Dr. Archer's career at VCU. Seventeen research papers were delivered at the podium and 16 posters were displayed at the lunch break.

A special thanks to VCU Infectious Diseases administrative assistant, Krystle Shaw, for coordinating nearly all of the event. 

Thanks, always, to Peggy Andrews, my executive assistant, for keeping me on track.

I am already looking forward to next year's event.   

L-R: Peggy Andrews and Krystle Shaw

UV light and Continuous Disinfection in the Hospital- The Next Implementation Frontier?

Lately I have been discussing the inanimate environment. I have become more convinced that the environment is an important driver of hospital acquired infections (HAIs). Our means of consistently cleaning hospital surfaces is less than optimal.

Heightened cleaning, such as with UVC light, resulted in a significant decrease (25%) in C.difficile incidence, as documented in this study by Dr. David Pegues of the University of Pennsylvania. 

My colleague down the road at the University of Virginia, Dr. Costi Sifri, reported a decrease in hospital acquired infections (78% MRSA and C.difficile) after  introducing copper-impregnated composite hard surfaces and linens (continuously disinfecting surfaces) in the new wing of an acute care hospital. This was a quasi-experimental study so there are significant limitations. Regardless, the study adds to the body of literature on HAIs attributed to environmental cross-transmission. The results are tantalizing.

I still feel that hand hygiene and infection prevention bundles (central line checklists, ventilator bundles etc) are first and foremost in infection prevention. The next challenge is the targeted deployment of heightened cleaning (UVC light) and continuous disinfection strategies to minimize bioburden and lessen infection risk.

The 2nd Annual Gordon Archer Research Day is next week, 11/14/16, at the VCU Larrick Center.

I am greatly looking forward to it so stay tuned and check back for highlights.