Hospitals Fail to Follow Infection Prevention Precautions Half of the Time, Study Finds [VIDEO]

Hospital policies and guidelines put in place to prevent health care-associated infections are often ignored by clinicians, according to new research published in American Journal of Infection Control. The study, which is the most comprehensive review of infection control efforts at US hospitals in more than three decades, found "lax compliance, even in intensive care units (ICUs) where patients are more likely to be treated with devices linked to preventable infections - such as central lines, urinary catheters and ventilators," said a press release announcing the findings.

A team from Columbia University School of Nursing, led by Patricia Stone, a professor of health policy at the university, investigated policy compliance in 1,653 ICUs at 975 hospitals nationwide. The study focused on three of the most common preventable infections - central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

Approximately one in 10 hospitals lacked checklists to prevent bloodstream infections, one quarter lacked prevention precautions for pneumonia in ventilator patients and about one-third lacked guidelines for catheter-associated univary tract infection prevention. Even when the checklists were present, they were only followed about half of the time, the study found.

"Hospitals aren't following the rules they put in place themselves to keep patients safe," said Stone, who has published extensive research on health care-associated infections and contributed to prevention guidelines. "Rules don't keep patients from dying unless they're enforced."

An estimated 100,000 American annual deaths and $33 billion in avoidable medical costs result from health care-associated infections. Research has shown that checklists and other targeted infection control practices can make a significant dent in infection rates - but only if compliance rates among clinicians are also high.

While compliance rates could be ensured by electronic monitoring systems, the study found that only about one-third of surveyed ICUs have an electronic surveillance system to track compliance with infection-prevention policies. Electronic monitoring systems that offer report cards on compliance have been proven effective at lowering infection rates, previous research has found. At the same time, more than one-third of hospitals also failed to employ a full-time clinician certified in infection prevention to supervise compliance, the study found.

"We've come a long way in understanding what causes health care-associated infections and how to prevent them," Stone said. "This study shows we still have a long way to go in compliance with well-established, life-saving and cost-saving measures that we know will lower infection rates."