Resources
The 10K: 10,000 Reasons to Race for Infection Prevention
Date: November 30, 2016
Filed under:
Featured, Surgery, Past Project
In 2015, we launched an improvement collaborative to reduce infections occurring after surgery. With 10,000 surgical patients in BC suffering from a surgical site infection (SSI) or urinary tract infection (UTI) each year, the “10K” focused on 10,000 Reasons to Race for Infection Prevention and aimed to reduce SSIs and UTIs at participating teams’ sites by 50% by November 2016.
Twelve teams signed up to join the “race.” Clinical faculty included a paediatric cardiac surgeon from BC Children’s Hospital, an anaesthesiologist from Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and an operating room nurse from Vancouver General Hospital. The Specialist Services Committee provided funding to support the involvement of physicians and surgeons, and a partnership alliance ensured alignment with the Ministry of Health, BC Anaesthesia Society, Canadian Association of General Surgeons, Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Doctors of BC, Perianaesthesia Nursing Association of BC, Provincial Infection Control Network of BC, and Specialist Services Committee.
Teams started the “race” during a two-day launch event in October 2015, where they received information about best practices and guidelines, change ideas, hands-on guidance to improve teamwork and communication, measurement support, and coaching to define their local aim statement based on baseline data. Throughout the year, our support for the 10K teams included regional workshops, a mobile app with helpful resources, and coaching from improvement advisors. Virtual learning sessions covered topics identified by teams and included preventing catheter-associated UTIs, normothermia (normal body temperature), prophylactic antibiotics, and glycemic control.
Using data collected through their participation in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, teams measured SSI as well as UTI rates and evaluated process measures (measurement of best practices undertaken to reduce the infection rates). Participating 10K teams determined their own process measures and tracked compliance by team members as well as the SSI and UTI rates for their patients.
Many sites that participated in the 10K began using their NSQIP data consistently for improvement efforts, and some achieved 100% compliance with their process measures. For sites that focused on SSI as an outcome measure, there were some changes in infection rates that, while not significant, did indicate that improvements were being made.
Resources for 10K Teams
Several valuable resources were created for improvement teams to use throughout the initiative:
Download the 10K Driver Diagram
This driver diagram is a framework that can help us achieve our goal. Every piece of it may not be relevant to you, but we hope that you will find it to be a practical resource.
Want to know a bit more about how driver diagrams work? Check out a helpful video from the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement.
Download the SSI Change Ideas worksheet
This worksheet provides evidence-based change ideas and strategies that you can implement in the operating room to prevent surgical site infections.
Download the UTI Change Ideas Worksheet
This worksheet provides evidence-based change ideas and strategies that you can implement in the operating room to prevent urinary tract infections.
10K Webinars
View recordings of past web sessions: