Healthcare associated infection has long been an associated risk of attending hospitals and healthcare settings.
It is estimated that 35 to 50% of all Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI) are related to just 5 patient care practices:
- Hand hygiene
- Presence of a Urinary Catheter
- Presence of an Intravenous (IV) device
- Pulmonary Supports such as Ventilation
- Surgical procedures
By focusing on these areas of patient care, we can thus have a major impact on the safety and quality of patient care – reducing harm and providing more effective care.
These interventions are called HIGH IMPACT INTERVENTIONS
The SAVING LIVES Initiative was launched by the NHS in 2009 and was designed to tackle the increasing Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infections noted in hospitals.
The saving lives programme focused on these High Impact areas of patient care and recommended a number of key HIGH IMPACT INTERVENTIONS to reduce risks of HCAI (Healthcare associated infections).
Saving lives high impact interventions care bundles
In order to make implementation of high impact interventions easier best practice guidelines were grouped into CARE BUNDLES – designed to ensure standardised, safe, effective patient care and evidenced based practice related to management of invasive devices and invasive procedures.
Medical Audits High Impact Audit system Includes NHS England SAVING LIVES Programme
The department of health in England in consultation with the Infection Prevention Society (IPS) have updated the saving lives care bundles and launched a number of High impact intervention care bundles. These can be found on the NHS Improvement website.
Medical Audits Saving Lives range of high impact audit tools have been developed to meet enable monitoring of compliance with these new High Impact Interventions
Medical Audit's Saving Lives High Impact Audit System includes NHS Scotland's Evidence for Care Bundles
NHS Scotland’s evidence for care bundles include Urinary Catheter care bundle, PVC care bundle, CVC care bundle, VAP bundle and Surgical Site care bundles –all of which have been updated in the past few years.
Saving Lives High Impact Quality Assurance System includes Ireland’s HPSC High Impact Intervention care bundles
The HPSC (Health Protection Surveillance Centre) in Ireland has also updated its High impact infection control care bundles.
The newly launched HIQA standards for Infection prevention and control in Acute Hospitals (HIQA, 2017) require hospitals to embed care bundles into practice to reduce risks of invasive device related infections.
Medical Audits SAVING LIVES High Impact Assurance System Care Bundle Audit tool
Medical Audits have a range of care bundle audit tools and care bundle monitoring systems to support both ward based and Infection prevention team quality assurance audits.
Our High Impact Assurance system includes a range of audits for monitoring compliance.
As with all Medical Audits’ systems, the data is available in real time on the audit devices AND on up to the minute digital dashboards, providing staff with feedback as soon as the audit is completed.