Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Comfy ORs - June 2014 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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1 5 7 J U N E 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E L. Silvia Munoz-Price, MD, PhD INFECTION PREVENTION A Superbug Meets Its Unlikely Match Well-designed mass e-mails helped curb Acinetobacter baumannii. F or many years, the battle we'd fought against a superbug that had taken up residence in our facility seemed destined to end in a draw. Our infection rates weren't getting worse, but they weren't getting better, either. We'd taken aim with patient-screening tests and isolation, we'd counterpunched with hand-hygiene interventions, we'd thrown hooks and haymakers like surface sampling and multidiscipli- nary meetings — but the resilient multi-drug resistant organism known as Acinetobacter baumannii wouldn't stay down. Until, that is, we found a new secret weapon: e-mail. That's right. Mass-distribution missives were what finally gave us the upper hand. We haven't knocked the nuisance out yet, but we finally have it on the ropes. IMPORTANT READING E-mail updates raised accountability and got everyone's competitive juices flowing. OS_1406_part3_Layout 1 6/13/14 11:56 AM Page 157

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