Qualis Health, a Seattle-based healthcare consultancy and care management organization, has published an online toolkit that provides hospitals a practical, low-cost approach to engaging patients and families in infection control.
Tested and refined in real-world environments at multiple hospitals, the toolkit provides a step-by-step roadmap for implementing an innovative "hand hygiene huddle" with patients and their families early in a hospital stay. Features include a step-by-step implementation roadmap with linked resources, commentary from subject matter experts, and videos of hospital teams describing their implementation successes.
Across the U.S., healthcare-associated infections continue to contribute to unnecessary pain and suffering for hospital patients. The National Quality Strategy has prioritized making care safer by reducing harm caused in the delivery of care, and ensuring that each person and family is engaged as partners in their care. Stemming from a Qualis Health pilot program conducted under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Advisors Program, the huddle concept was further developed through a CMS Quality Improvement Organization special innovation project.
"Across the healthcare system, providers and policymakers are looking for solutions that can improve outcomes and make care delivery more patient-centered," Jonathan Sugarman, M.D., Qualis Health president and CEO, said in a statement. "The hand hygiene huddle is a practical, low-cost, frontline driven approach to engaging patients and families in a hospital's infection prevention efforts.
The toolkit is available here.
