AHRQ grant targets central-line infections

The agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded a $3 million contract to an American Hospital Association Affiliate to implemented a three-year program designed to slash central-line-associated bloodstream infection rates in intensive-care units. 

The infection-reduction program was designed by Johns Hopkins University researchers, and first implemented in some Michigan hospitals. The program hopes to cut bloodstream infection rates by a substantial 80 percent in the next three years. The grant money from AHRQ will be used to train hospital staffers in evidence-based central-line techniques and patient-safety principles known to reduce such infections. It will also help collect data to analyze whether the facilities actually realize the hoped-for infection-rate reductions.

The affiliate, the Health Research & Educational Trust, will work with hospital associations in 10 states to help them determine which facilities should implement the program. Over time, the trust hopes to have at least 10 hospitals from each state using the infection-reduction program, or a total of 100 hospitals overall. The group should announce the hospitals involved by the end of 2008, the group says.

To learn more about the program:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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