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For Infection Prevention, Try Duct Tape

 |  By cclark@healthleadersmedia.com  
   June 27, 2011

Staff at hospitals that choose active surveillance and patient isolation to prevent bug transmission must endure the hassle of gowning and gloving for  each patient encounter. The upshot is that important communication with the patient sometimes loses to more pressing healthcare needs.

But members of the infection team at Trinity Regional Health System, a four-hospital network with 504 beds on the Illinois/Iowa border, say they've found a solution that is amazingly low tech: Duct tape.

They call the solution the "Red Box" safe zone, a three-foot square area of space from the threshold of the patient's room, marked off with red duct tape purchased at a local hardware store.


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Now when an isolated patient has a simple request, such as a glass of water, or needs to go to the restroom, staff can stand within that box to communicate to the patient in the room without having to don gowns and gloves.  "It lessened barriers to communicating," said Janet Nau Franck, infection prevention consultant at Trinity and author of the report.

 


The Red Box can be used for about 30% of patient encounters when interaction between the patient and caregiver is simple and quick and does not require close proximity.

So far, the trick has proved a savings of 2,700 hours of personnel time and $110,000 a year in avoided purchase of gowns and gloves, Franck said.  And that has proved true for each of the two years since the Red Box project began in January, 2009.  That the savings was that significant, she said, was "surprising to many of us."


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About 67% of the healthcare workers said the duct tape strategy lessened barriers, and 79.2% said it saved time in not having to don and remove personal protective equipment.  The red tape also sent an important visual cue to remind healthcare workers that they were entering an isolation room, which is usually only indicated by a sign outside the patient's door.

 

Compliance so far has been 98%, Franck said.

She presented her results at a recent news briefing in advance of the annual meeting of the Associationof Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, (APIC) which begins Monday, June 27, in Baltimore.
There is no documented risk of patient infection when un-gowned staff venture no closer than three feet from the threshold of a patient's room, Franck said. Gowns and gloves are, however, required when staff must move closer to the patient's bedside, she emphasized.

"Not having to wear gowns or gloves increased quality and frequency of interaction creating an environment where both patients and staff were happier," she said. 

See Also:
Top 10 Infection Control Challenges
Risk of Surgical Infection Rises with OR Noise Levels
Infection Prevention Pilot Slashes CLABSI by 35%
CDC, NIH Revise Bloodstream Infection Prevention Guidelines
Private ICU Rooms Slash HAI Rates by Half

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