Agency News and Notes

Combining strategies cuts hospitals' healthcare-associated infection rates

The new evidence report Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections shows that basic quality improvement strategies are more effective at reducing health care-associated infections among hospital patients when coupled with either care audit and clinician feedback plus provider reminder systems, or audit and feedback alone. These strategies were also effective at increasing hospital staff adherence to infection-specific patient safety protocols.

This report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and quality (AHRQ) is part of a larger initiative, Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science, developed by AHRQ's Effective Health Care Program, which funds effectiveness and comparative effectiveness research and makes findings available for clinicians, consumers, and policymakers. For details, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/gaphaistp.htm

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