Safe Injection Practices get star attention in healthcare settings

CDC’s One & Only Campaign is winner of 2013 APIC Film Festival

Safe Injection Practices get star attention in healthcare settings

<0> APICLiz Garman, 202-454-2604orJennifer Crawford, 202-261-2889 </0>

A video depicting an animated man’s harrowing experience with the healthcare system, including an avoidable unsafe injection, is the grand prize winner of the third annual Film Festival at the of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (). The video was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC) as part of their to raise awareness among patients and healthcare providers about safe injection practices.

According to the CDC, more than 150,000 patients have been impacted by unsafe injection practices since 2001. The CDC has reported 48 outbreaks linked to unsafe injection practices. These outbreaks have included transmission of hepatitis B and C, as well as bacterial infections.

“” features the story of “Joe,” a man who acquired an infection due to unsafe injection practices. The video follows Joe on a 10-day journey, emphasizing the domino effect of healthcare-associated infections and demonstrating how the CDC’s evidence-based guidelines could have helped the character avoid hospital readmission and the potential to spread the infection to others.

The video illustrates the greater implications of Joe’s infection and stresses the imperative of following infection control best practices to keep patients safe in all healthcare settings. The video drives home this message by stating: “You only get one opportunity to protect the one and only Joe.”

“Given the impact unsafe injection practices have on the spread of infections, we feel that this video can be a great tool to raise awareness among healthcare providers and consumers,” said Karen Hoffmann, RN, MS, CIC, APIC 2013 Annual Conference Committee Chair. “We selected this video as the 2013 Film Festival winner for its innovative narrative approach to detailing the importance of safe injection practices.”

APIC Annual Conference attendees will have the chance to and vote for their favorite to be presented at the closing plenary on June 10. The nominees, who represent health facilities in Alberta, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Mississippi, among others, were chosen out of 33 video submissions.

The nominated videos focus on issues of importance to APIC members and the broader health community, such as , , and the .

The June 8-10 in Fort Lauderdale, is the most comprehensive infection prevention conference in the world, with and workshops led by infection prevention experts and attended by more than 4,500 individuals. The conference aims to provide infection preventionists with tools and strategies that are easily adaptable and can be implemented immediately to improve prevention programs. The Twitter hashtag is being used for the meeting.

APIC’s mission is to create a safer world through prevention of infection. The association’s more than 14,000 members direct infection prevention programs that save lives and improve the bottom line for hospitals and other healthcare facilities. APIC advances its mission through patient safety, implementation science, competencies and certification, advocacy, and data standardization. Follow APIC on Twitter: .