Standard 3: Preventing and Controlling HAIs

Running head: STANDARD 3: PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING HAIs 1
Standard 3: Preventing and Controlling HAIs
Name
Institution

STANDARD 3: PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING HAIs 2
STANDARD 3: PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING HAIs
Introduction/Background
The clinical problem or issue selected here is the “Healthcare-Associated Infections”
(HAIs), and the Standard three has been chosen to help address this issue/clinical problem. The
HAIs denotes the infections that the sick get when they are being treated for the surgical and
medical conditions, and a significant proportion of such infections are preventable. The
contemporary healthcare applies several kinds of devices (invasive) and procedures when
treating patients and to assist their patients to recover. However, the infections can be attributed
to procedures such as surgery alongside the devices utilized in the medical procedures like
catheters/ventilators (Chandrananth, Rabinovich, Karahalios, Guy & Tran, 2016).
The HAIs remain significant causes of both mortality and morbidity and are linked to a
considerable surge in healthcare costs every year. At any given time, the Australians who are
hospitalized are affected by a HAIs. The HAIs takes place in each kind of care context. These
include acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgical centres, dialysis facilities, outpatient care as
well as long-term care facilities. The common types of HAIs include pneumonia, bloodstream
infections, surgical infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections and Clostridium
difficile (Choi et al., 2015).
The HAIs is a critical clinical problem or issue due to many reasons. HAIs are substantial
sources of complications crossway a continuum of care. These infections can be transmitted
between various healthcare facilities. Nevertheless, the latest research indicates that the
implementation of current prevention practices can culminate in up to 70% reduction in some
HAIs. Similarly, the newest modelling data indicate that significant reductions in the resistant

STANDARD 3: PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING HAIs 3
bacteria including MRSA can be accomplished via the coordinated tasks between the healthcare
facilities in a particular region.
The financial benefits of employing the prevention and control practices are
approximated to be about 25 to 32 billion dollars in the cost saved that would otherwise be spent
on medication. The HAIs risk factors can be categorized into three primary categories. These
include medical procedures alongside antibiotic use; organizational elements as well as patient
features. The healthcare practitioner behavior alongside their interactions with the healthcare
system further influences the HAIs rate (Mathot, Duke, Daley & Butcher, 2015).
Research has shown that correct education coupled with training of healthcare workers
surges compliance with as well as the adoption of best practices like infection control, attention
to safety culture, hand hygiene as well as antibiotic stewardship can help prevent HAIs. Because
of the magnitude of the health risk to patients, there is a need for the practitioners to adopt the
following best practices (Grammatico-Guillon, Rusch & Astagneau, 2015). These include careful
insertion, maintenance as well as the prompt elimination of catheters and the careful utilization
of antibiotics. The other best practice is decolonization of patients with the evidence-based
technique to decrease the MRSA transmission in the hospitals.
Trends/Themes Synthesis
The objectives of Healthy People 2020 measure the progress in Australia and globally
towards the reduction of CLASBSI incidences alongside invasive MRSA infections.
Nevertheless, the new wok is called for to ensure effective implementation of the Standard 3 to
prevent and control HAIs effectively (Farmer & Mitchell, 2010). Besides, there are additional
main kinds of HAIs which Hospital Healthcare System must work to avoid. These other types
include the HAIs triggered by antibiotic-resistant pathogens (Graves et al., 2016). They include

STANDARD 3: PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING HAIs 4
catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical sites infections, ventilator-associated events
or ventilator-associated pneumonia as well as Clostridium difficile infections.
The studies have indicated that several of such infections remain preventable. Attempts
are underway to expand not only the implementation of Standard 3 but also other strategies
proven to prevent the HAIs better, advance useful prevention tools’ development, as well as
explore the new-fangled approaches to prevention (Ezzatzadegan, Chen & Chapman, 2012). A
significant share of strategies and energies to prevent HAIs have been directed towards acute
contexts. Delivery of healthcare, increasingly, including the complicated procedures, is already
being moved towards outpatient setting like ambulatory surgical centres, long-term care facilities
as well as end-phase renal illness facilities (Mitchell, Shaban, MacBeth, Wood, & Russo, 2017).
Such contexts usually have restrained capacity to oversight alongside infection control
than the hospital-oriented ones. Patients with HAIs alongside those triggered by antibiotic
resistance pathogens, typically move between a range of healthcare facilities types. Therefore,
preventions energies have to be expanded crossways the care continuum. Furthermore, the
challenges brought by antibiotic-resistant pathogens alongside C. difficile stay best tackled via
coordinated actions amongst the healthcare facilities in a particular area.
It is clear that HAIs is a clinical issue or problem that needs a new raft of measures to
address. The HAIs remain amongst the most common, substantial and preventable patient safety
clinical issue presently. Yearly, 180,000 patients in Australia suffer HAIs thereby elongating
their stay in the hospitals. This further consumes two million hospital bed days. The HAIs impact
encompasses surged patients mortality and morbidity risks, elongated stay in hospitals, decreased
QoL as well as extra costs for consumable products utilized in the treatment of HAIs for both
system and patients. The HAIs produce a substantial economic and health burden for both health