The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, four years ago among the UK’s poorest-performing on infection control, has been awarded the status of the world’s first International Centre of Excellence in infection prevention from Johnson & Johnson company, Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), after reducing its Clostridium difficile infection rate alone by over 80% in just three years via more rigorous cleaning, and use of an ASP-supplied hydrogen peroxide-based mist dispersion system.
Staff now expect hospital leaders from across the world to travel to a new ASP-funded Centre of Excellence in Liverpool to learn how the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital have so significantly reduced HCAI rates. Before November 2008, the Trust had a particularly poor infection control record; during a prolonged norovirus outbreak in 2007, for instance, it lost 1,770 bed days, at a cost of around £708,000, while the same year the Royal Liverpool University Hospital saw 795 cases of hospital-acquired C. difficile. With growing evidence suggesting that traditional manual processes often result in incomplete cleaning, the Trust sought innovative methods to eliminate infectioncausing pathogens, and, on a US visit, Sue Redfern, deputy director of nursing, identified a process utilised by Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, which partly attributed a reduction in its own HCAI rates to deep cleaning methods and area decontamination. The Trust subsequently bought six ASP GLOSAIR hydrogen peroxide mist technology dispersal units, which spray a low concentration mist within a sealed area, such as a ward, to rapidly kill a multiple of pathogens. Alongside increased emphasis on cleaning and cleaning standards, the technology was introduced in November 2008, and, within four months, was reportedly already saving the hospital £650,000, or £500 per day, on a reduction in norovirus alone. Staff also witnessed ‘a dramatic reduction’ in both C. difficile and MRSA, with 80.5% and 86% falls in hospital-acquired cases respectively between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2011. Diane Wake, executive director of nursing and operations, and director of infection prevention and control, at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: “Patients can be reassured we are continuing to see significant falls in C. difficile and MRSA cases. We have halved our C. difficile rates in the last year. With greater emphasis on cleaning and cleaning standards, and the use of innovative area decontamination solutions, we have made tackling healthcare-associated infections our top priority.” ASP says the effectiveness of GLOSAIR has been demonstrated in several independent field studies against bacteria, fungi, and spores, producing log kills of >5, 4, or 3, respectively.
