Patient Safety Indicators
Public Reporting of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI's)
Public Reporting of C. difficile Rates
Public Reporting of MRSA Bacteraemia
Public Reporting of VRE Bacteraemia
Public Reporting of Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates
Hospital or healthcare associated infections are infections that people can get when they are hospitalized and/or in contact with a health care facility.
On September 30, 2008, all Ontario Hospitals began monthly public reporting of their rates of Clostridium Difficile Associated Disease (CDAD), the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare facilities.
This was the first of eight patient safety indicators that hospitals will be required to report to the public. The purpose of this measure is to reassure the public of Ontario hospitals’ commitment to enhancing patient safety and improving patient care. It does so by helping hospitals to establish a baseline from which we can track our rates of these infections over time. This way, we can identify a rise in rates and in response, identify areas of improvement and implement strategies to reduce the rate of these infectious illnesses in our facilities. Hopefully, this will strengthen the public’s confidence in our hospitals.
On December 30, 2008, hospitals commenced publically reporting both their rates and the number of new cases of MRSA and VRE bacteraemia quarterly. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain or all types of beta lactase classes of antibiotics (e.g. penicillins and cephlosporins). Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) are bacteria normally found in human intestines, the female genital tract and often in the environment and are resistant to Vancomycin, an antibiotic often used to treat infections from this organism. Both of these organisms can cause serious infections. Bacteraemia is the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream.
On April 30th, 2009 hospitals will commence annually reporting baseline Hand Hygiene Compliance rates for “before and after patient contact”. This is the beginning of a comprehensive campaign aimed at promoting and educating staff, patients and visitors on hand hygiene practices, selecting the best hand hygiene products for the hospital and identifying strategies to make products more accessible for staff i.e. .increasing number of wall mounted sanitizers.
Above are the links for the Rates and Additional Resources for CDAD, MRSA and VRE bacteraemia and Hand Hygiene compliance. After April 30, 2009, the public can access the hospital’s rates for all of these indicators from our hospital website or from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s site: (www.ontario.ca/patientsafety)
For more information, please feel free to contact us at (705) 549-3181 Keith Charles Press (Ext. 2128) or Tracy Frost (Ext 2652).