Mount Auburn Healthcare Connection

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Healthcare associated infections are a leading cause of death in the United States. That’s an issue that Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School is hoping to change.

“We and our colleagues throughout the country are working to reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals,” says Mary-Lark Dupont, R.N., M.S.N., C.I.C., Manager, Infection Control at Mount Auburn Hospital. “Although this hospital has a long-standing infection control program, our goal is to have a zero tolerance policy for infection.”

Some healthcare associated infections, such as staph infections, have been present in hospital settings for 45 years and have become more resistant to antibiotics in the years since penicillin was discovered. Some of the most serious infections include:

· Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a form of staph bacteria that has become resistant to certain antibiotics. According to Ms. Dupont, staph is a common bacteria that can often be found on the skin or in the nose and throat. Although staph is common, the antibiotic resistant infectious form, MRSA, does not respond as well to antibiotics, making treatment especially difficult.

· Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) is another bacteria that has developed antibiotic resistance. Enterococci are commonly found in the intestines and occasionally on the skin. The presence of VRE is not a problem unless it causes an infection. When an infection develops, treatment is difficult because of the antibiotic resistance.

· Clostridium difficile bacteria causes colitis and it is resistant to some antibiotics. Colitis is an inflammation of the colon, which may cause abdominal pain and severe diarrhea.

The major mode of transmission for these infections is healthcare workers’ hands. “We have initiated a ‘Back to Basics’ program for our entire staff,” says Ms. Dupont. “Our professionals are expected to practice good hand hygiene before and after they see patients. Since this is a hospital-wide effort, we are all responsible for monitoring each other.” Good hand hygiene includes proper hand washing with soap and water or the use of alcohol hand disinfectant, which removes 99.9 percent of disease-producing bacteria from the skin within 10 to 15 seconds.

Mount Auburn Hospital strictly follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as well as those of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and many others. “We very closely monitor our high-risk patients by using active surveillance. We culture those admitted to our critical care unit on a weekly basis to look for MRSA,” she says.

The hospital is also installing a new set of protocols for eliminating environmental bacteria as well as bacterial contamination on common surfaces such as computer keyboards and phones.

Some infections Mount Auburn Hospital and most hospitals in the country are seeing are vaccine preventable infections, and monitoring of patients for active communicable diseases is part of the Infection Control practitioners’ role.

Since pertussis (whooping cough), measles and mumps for instance, are becoming more prevalent in young adults, the hospital is proactively offering testing and vaccinations to staff. Hospital workers are also highly encouraged to take the influenza vaccine, which helps decrease the risk of severe pneumonia and infections to themselves, their families and their patients.

Mount Auburn Hospital is proceeding toward its goal to decrease cases of infection. “We do so much internal education on preventing the risk of infection. It really is a collaborative effort and everyone considers themselves an integral part of the infection control program,” says Ms. Dupont.

For a free Mount Auburn Hospital physician directory, please call us at 617-499-5094.