AH ANNUAL REPORT 2018

Reducing Hospital Acquired Infections
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Aim: By March 2018, reduce avoidable harm due to
hospital acquired infection by 50%.
Targets: From the 2014/15 baseline:
1. No hospital acquired MRSA bacteraemia
2. No Clostridium difficile infections due to lapses
in care
3. Reduce the number of hospital acquired
infections by 50% from the 2014/15 baseline of
147; this represents 74 infections
Outcomes - 2017/18:
1. 4 x MRSA bacteraemia
2. 1 x Clostridium difficile infection
3. 46% decrease in the number of hospital
acquired infections: this represents 80
Data source – corporate report April 2018
Effective infection prevention and Control (IP&C)
practice is essential to ensure that patients receive
safe and effective care. In order to provide the best
possible outcome for the children in our care it is vitally
important that we identify and manage all infections
that affect our children and young people to reduce
the risk of healthcare acquired infection. Children and
young people can present unique IP&C challenges,
such as:
• They are susceptible to infections, which are
preventable by vaccination.
• They have closer contact with other visitors such as
parents and siblings.
• Their poor hygiene practices present more
opportunities for infection to spread.
• They may also interact more closely with their
environment, making them more likely to come into
contact with contaminated surfaces and items.
• Communicable diseases affect a higher percentage
of paediatric patients than adults increasing the
likelihood of cross infection.
Improvements & Achievements 2017/18
• Development and implementation of a new Infection
Prevention and Control Work Plan as a reporting
system for the work undertaken by the Infection
Prevention and Control Team and reported through to
the Trust Board, CQAC, CQPG and IPCC.
• Rationalisation of the cleaning and disinfecting
products used within the Trust through a quality
improvement and evaluation process.
• Root Causes Analysis (RCA) process introduced
for all Trust acquired MSSA, E.coli, Klebsiella
and Pseudomonas bacteraemia to examine and
highlight identification of lessons learned to inform
improvement processes across the Trust.
• Introduction of the ‘OneTogether’ programme into
Theatres to improve infection prevention and control
processes which are monitored through the Surgical
Site infection Surveillance Action plan, Theatre Safety
Board and IPCC.
• Integration of Alder Hey into the Wider Health
Economy from an infection prevention and control
perspective both regionally and nationally including
Gram negative blood stream infection work and
Intravenous Forum work.
• Commencement of the National Paediatric Special
Interest Group (SIG) supported by the Infection
Prevention Society (IPS) incorporating Infection
Prevention and Control, Tissue Viability, Intravenous
Therapy and Infection Diseases.
• Introduction of an electronic Alert system on
Meditech to monitor Alert Organisms to replace the
paper based system.
• Checklist developed and used by IPCT to ensure
appropriate investigation into hospital acquired
diarrhoea; plan to produce posters for wards to
replicate this.
• A gap analysis for the new Public Health England
Toolkit for reducing E. coli bacteraemia was
undertaken and actions have been added to the IPC
Work Plan.
• Commencement of a sepsis nurse to audit
compliance with sepsis management.
• SSI surveillance for K-wires insertion commenced.
Results to be discussed with the surgeons before
being distributed Trust wide.
• Successful amalgamation of Infection Prevention and
Control, Tissue Viability and Intravenous teams as
one collaborative team.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust 108
Annual Report & Accounts 2017/18