Our Achievements
We might be a small team, but over the past decade and in collaboration with our key stakeholders we've made a pretty big impact in the area of infection surveillance, prevention and control. Take a quick look at some of our key achievements to date:
- Hand hygiene compliance of healthcare workers has more than doubled across the state thanks to our Clean hands are life savers program. Launched in 2007, the program aims to improve hand hygiene - and ensure it remains a high priority - through strategies designed to change healthcare workers' behaviour and Queensland Health culture.
- Staff Protect - our healthcare worker vaccination program - has seen a dramatic increase in vaccination rates among Queensland's healthcare workers. As part of the program around 59% of staff were vaccinated against influenza alone in the 2009-10 year.
- Developed four new information technology applications that allow for improved data collection, management, monitoring, review and reporting across Queensland hospitals and other jurisdictions:
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eICAT - Electronic Infection Control Assessment Technology used to collect, organise and structure the reporting of HAI infection surveillance data
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| MedTRx - an application we developed in 2008 to help us better understand antibiotic usage across Queensland Health facilities. Through MedTRx we extract dispensing and distribution data from the Queensland Health iPharmacy database and calculate defined daily doses from this information to provide antibiotic usage reports |
| CHA - hand hygiene assessment technology designed to help hospitals manage and report on the hand hygiene compliance of their workers |
| Staff Protect - an application designed to help us better meet the ongoing and changing needs in managing healthcare worker vaccine preventable disease details |
- Developed the I-Care program, which is a set of recommended practices to prevent healthcare associated IVD-related BSIs. Since in 2007, IVD-related BSIs in Queensland hospitals have reduced by more than 27%.
- In collaboration with the Gastroenterological Nurses College of Australia Inc. we developed an online training tool based on the national standard of practice to improve the reprocessing of flexible endoscopes and accessories. The web-based tool provides healthcare professionals in Australia and overseas with the training they need to minimise adverse outcomes associated with reprocessing breaches. In the 12 months ending 30 June 2010, more than 27,000 users from over 150 countries accessed this source from our website. We also received a request to translate a portion of it into Dutch.
- As committee members, CHRISP contributed to the development of Australian Standards (Australian/New Zealand Standard 4187: 2003 'Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of associated environments in health care facilities' [AS4187] and Australian/New Zealand Standard 4815:2006 'Office-based health care facilities - Reprocessing of reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of the associated environment' [AS4815]).
- Routinely undertook comprehensive infection prevention and control program reviews locally and interstate.
- Undertook scientific research that contributes to the body of evidence in the fight against infection.
- Routinely co-ordinated the submission, analysis and reporting of HAI surveillance data from 23 participating sites and facilitated signal infection surveillance for all other sites.
- Provided workforce training and development opportunities which resulted in 65 central sterilising department staff participating in a Certificate III in Sterilising Services and another 34 enrolled to complete a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.
- Developed the Hollow-bore needle sharps safety program which consists of an online survey tool, recommended practices and processes for product evaluation. This has seen a significant reduction in related injuries across participating Queensland hospitals over the last five years.
- Established the Queensland Health Sterilising Solution panel with medical industry that will ensure all new or redesigned sterilising departments have access to the latest technologies for standardising, integrating and automating their business.
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