Hand hygiene, other practices improve PICU mortality and costs

Improving hand hygiene, oral care and central-line catheter care reduced hospital-acquired infections and improved mortality rates while reducing costs among children admitted to a large pediatric intensive care unit, according to a study in last month's issue of the journal Health Affairs. The study involved the implementation of three interventions at a large multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit at the Women's and Children's hospitals at the University of North Carolina. The researchers found that patients admitted after implementation of the interventions spent 2.3 fewer days in the hospital, their hospitalization cost $12,136 less and mortality was 2.3 percent lower compared with data of those admitted before the interventions.

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