Elephant Rounds: a structured multi-disciplinary huddle to operationalise systems thinking in infection prevention...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare epidemiology
• Infection prevention and control
• Systems thinking in healthcare

Background:

• Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) stem from complex system interactions, not isolated incidents.
• Current infection prevention and control (IPC) rounds often operate in disciplinary silos, hindering cross-team signal integration.
• A need exists for enhanced methods to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in managing HAIs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and describe the
• Elephant Rounds
• model, a novel structured huddle for synthesizing IPC signals.
• To promote real-time systems thinking within healthcare teams for improved HAI prevention.
• To provide a framework for enhancing interdisciplinary alignment and situational awareness in IPC.

Main Methods:

• The
• Elephant Rounds
• model is a brief, structured, multidisciplinary huddle.
• It incorporates cross-disciplinary inputs for comprehensive risk assessment.
• The process includes structured synthesis of information and definition of agreed-upon actions with clear ownership.

Main Results:

• A hypothetical case of increasing central line-associated bloodstream infections demonstrates the model's application.
• The approach facilitates the integration of diverse IPC signals.
• It supports the development of coherent, actionable strategies for infection control.

Conclusions:

• The
• Elephant Rounds
• model offers a pragmatic approach to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration in IPC.
• It enhances situational awareness and promotes more effective, systems-based decision-making for HAI prevention.
• This method can lead to more coherent and impactful infection prevention and control strategies.