FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oklahoma Hospitals to Work with OFMQ to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections
(October 6, 2009, Oklahoma City, Ok) The Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ) announced it was awarded funding through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to study the best strategies for preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). HAIs are infections that patients acquire while receiving treatment for medical or surgical conditions, and they are among the leading causes of death in the United States, accounting for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths in 2002. In hospitals, they are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.[1]
Through this special study, OFMQ will work with a group of Oklahoma hospitals to apply evidence-based intervention strategies and study the effect of these tools on incidence rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), namely catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and C. difficile infections. The results of the special study will be used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ to implement national guidelines for prevention of HAIs, as part of its Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections, released in 2008.
[1] Klevens RM, et al. Estimating Health Care-Associated Infections and Deaths in U.S. Hospitals, 2002. Public Health Reports 2007; 122:160-166.