Symptom word documentation: A novel approach to identifying and managing hospital-acquired infections
Kim Carry-Littles1, Kim Nguyen2, Todd Rowe1
1The Division of Nursing, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Abstract:
An interprofessional team developed a symptom word documentation tool based on surveillance definitions for specific types of infections published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nursing documentation was monitored pre- and postimplementation of the tool, revealing increased compliance with symptom documentation. Although symptom word documentation does not reduce the number of infections, it may impact the central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rate by better differentiating CLABSI from other infection sources, as was observed in this institution.
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