Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay

Infection Control Evidence-Based Practice

Medicine demands the highest standards of care and safest practice. It deals with human life and guarding it is the pillar of the entirety of its practice. EBP is defines as the approach and the blueprint of the research practice that is used to transition data from results of a research or investigation into safe practice and application of care protocols. DiCenso et al ., (2017) explains that EBP is the a mirror of the safe and high standards performance of patient care derived from research that is used to meet patient’s needs. There are several EBP methods used widely in nowadays medicine practice such as infection control, use of O2 in COPD patients, weight management in CHF patients…etc. For the purpose of this paper the subjectivity of it will be toward infection control and importance of EBP in raising it in such standards and why it should be used in or practice. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

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Leads to highest quality care and patient outcomes

Infection prevention in any healthcare facility is a safety process that is never overlooked by the organization itself. Not only does an infection acquired in hospital cost the institution enormous amount in healthcare, but it places the lives of the patient at risk. When considering providing care to patients and no exposure or contraction of infection was carried on during the service, the outcome should look into safe practice and proper utilization of the standards that assure prevention of infection and controlling it. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay Loveday et al., (2014) explains that use of PPE, hand washing hygiene and use of proper barrier precautions represent high quality of care and positive outcomes for patients that are fragile and in a weak status at the time of the care provided. There are two components of quality of care: accessibility and efficiency of it. If the care accessed was not efficient in getting patient better and instead added another infection to their condition, it failed to provide quality care. (Donabedian,1988). Preventing transmission of infection to patient does exactly that, maintains the standards of care and assures quality in delivering it. So another way of thinking of the infection control EBP is that is used as measuring tool as well, of how the institution provides and guarantees safe and effective care. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

Reduces health care costs

Trybou et al ,. (2016) states that: “Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) are considered to be one of the most serious patient safety issues in healthcare today. It has been shown that HAIs contribute significantly not only to morbidity and mortality, but also to excessive costs for the health care system and for hospitalized patients. Since possibilities of prevention and control exist, hospital quality can be improved while simultaneously the cost of care is reduced”. HAIs are used as a tool to measure the quality of health services an institution provides and the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) tracks and registers these. Based on their record the CMS determines their compensation or penalization of the place. Schmier (2016) Explains that: “HAI avoidance through use of health care antiseptics has a demonstrable and substantial impact on health care expenditures; the costs here are exclusive of administrative penalties or long-term outcomes for patients and caregivers such as lost productivity or indirect costs.”. If the spread of infection is controlled, the cost for its recovery is less and the sources of healthcare payment are not used up for it. This leads to reduces cost of care overall.

Reduces geographic variations in the delivery of care

Being used as a state-wide international standard, infection prevention is seeing as a practice of safe healthcare anywhere in the world. If all the places adopt efficient and qualitative EBP that aim to prevent infection spread, the geographic diversity of care provided will be eliminated and the delivery of care will be unanimous and safe anywhere. In a study conducted in Scutari, turkey, a decrease from 43% to 2% was noticed in a hospital where safe infection prevention practices were utilized. (Loveday, 2014).

Increases healthcare provider empowerment and role satisfaction

Other benefit of the infection prevention as part of the EBP strategy and practice is that it allows for an increased empowerment and satisfaction for the healthcare providers. With providers being the front line of delivery of care, being able to prevent the infection means that their year of hard work, expertise and extensive knowledge are functioning the expected way and quality care is being offered due to their performance, dedication and safe practice. This way the professionals take responsibility and charge in leading the projects that pioneer infection prevention, which then leads to quality care, customer satisfaction and reduced healthcare cost as well. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

Reduces healthcare provider turnover rate

When infections are prevented and the tam of the providers is the one directing the safety practice, the workload for the staff is reduced as well. Loveday et al., (2014) explained that when the workload is decreased the staff, nurses and other providers have better outcomes in their performance due their balanced work-life schedule. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay. They don’t have to work extra due to complications from the infections, therefore, prevention is the best strategy in assuring low staff turnover and pleasant work environment with assured longevity in the positions occupied.

Increases reimbursement from 3rd party payers

CMS has enabled the requirements that any infection acquired while in the hospital, will not be covered by Medicare. The hospital will have to pay for the infection treatment itself. There has been a reported increase of hospital bills from 28 billion to 45 billion that is accrued due to hospital acquired infections. (Loveday & colleges,2014). Like Medicare, the majority of other private insurances, follow the same principles when it comes to compensating for HAIs. So controlled HAI rates, lead to an increase of reimbursement from the third-party payors compare to the decreased amount of payment they provide for the hospital when a HAI is contracted. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

Reduces complications and payment denials

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, specified, that not only will Medicare not pay for any infection acquired while inpatient, but there cannot be even a billing send to the with claims of compensation for the treatment of the patient that encountered a HAI.(Melnyk, Gallagher-Ford, Long, & Fineout-Overholt,2014).The reasoning behind that is that I the patient did not present with these symptoms initially, he/she got the infection while there and the hospital failed to provide safe and quality care by preventing infection and not doing what they are supposed to do Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

Meets the expectation of an informed public

Lastly, infection prevention based on EBP is a routine that can set an example for the public as to how to adopt safe and quality healthcare and prevent the spread of infection sin the community. EBP that streamlines all the quality measures, including infection prevention, can be found in abundance in media. That helps the community to be informed, compare data among institutions or providers, spread the knowledge and sensitize each other about precautionary steps.

References

DiCenso, A., Guyatt, G., & Ciliska, D. (2014). Evidence-Based Nursing-E-Book: A Guide to Clinical Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Donabedian, A. (1988). The quality of care: how can it be assessed?. Jama, 260(12), 1743-1748.

Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From – To. Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay.

Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher Name.

Loveday, H. P., Wilson, J., Pratt, R. J., Golsorkhi, M., Tingle, A., Bak, A., … & Wilcox, M. (2014). epic3: national evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections in NHS hospitals in England. The Journal of Hospital Infection, 86, S1-S70. doi: 10.1016/S0195-6701(13)60012-2.

Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: Proficiencies to improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.

Schmier, J. K., Hulme-Lowe, C. K., Semenova, S., Klenk, J. A., DeLeo, P. C., Sedlak, R., & Carlson, P. A. (2016). Estimated hospital costs associated with preventable health care-associated infections if health care antiseptic products were unavailable. ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR, 8, 197-205. doi:10.2147/CEOR.S102505 Translating Evidence into Clinical Practice – MN 566 Essay

Trybou, J., Spaepen, E., Vermeulen, B., Porrez, L., & Annemans, L. (2013). Hospital-acquired infections in Belgian acute-care hospitals: financial burden of disease and potential cost savings. Acta Clinica Belgica, 68(3), 199-205.