Carilion Clinic in Virginia Reduces HAIs by Increasing Size of IPC Team

Findings from Virginia’s Carilion Clinic health system will be delivered at APIC today regarding the increase in size of their IPC team and the subsequent drop in various infection rates.

Carilion Clinic had only eleven infection preventionists (IPs) “for its eight-hospital system of more than 1,000 licensed beds” in August 2020. By 2023, “Carilion more than doubled its IP staff from 11 to 24 full-timers,” with a marked decrease in various healthcare-associated infections (HAI) following. CAUTIs dropped 57% over this period; C. diff. declined by 52%; colon SSIs were down by 26%; and CLABSIs were down 16%.

The team at the hospital “aligned IP resources with Carilion’s organizational priorities, knowing that a well-resourced IPC program is fundamental to patient safety, quality care, and effective risk management.” The resulting drops in HAIs from larger IPC staffs leads to “fewer extended stays, lower readmission rates, fewer CMS penalties, and significant cost savings.”

Maimuna Jatta, the IPC director at the clinic, said that “pushing more infection preventionists to the front line means that instead of just controlling infections, we were preventing them from occurring in the first place.”