DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000422988.19085.cb

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Issn Print: 0276-2234

Publication Date: 2012/11/10


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Best Practices & Teamwork Help Reduce Pediatric Central Line Infections

Heather Lindsey

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Excerpt

A best-practice care bundle can reduce the number of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) in pediatric oncology patients, according to research reported in an article now available online ahead of print in Pediatrics(doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-0295). Implementation and compliance to central line care protocol can be difficult, though, the researchers noted, requiring a team effort from physicians, nurses, parents, and patients.
“It's challenging to get people to change behavior they've engaged in for years and years,” said the study's lead author, Michael L. Rinke, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Quality and Safety at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It wasn't until the second year of the study that there was more than a 60 percent decrease in central line infections, he said.
An expert not associated with the study, Michael Kelly, MD, PhD, Program Director of the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, said the study is informative because the authors were frank about the fact that they weren't always successful in the intervention and education process. “Overcoming cultural barriers and habits at hospitals are big challenges to having something like this work,” Kelly said.
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