Infection prevention program continues to surpass milestones

The Whidbey Island Public Hospital District, commonly known as WhidbeyHealth, celebrated its continued excellence regarding infection prevention protocols and best practices recently, the hospital reported in a statement.

Colleen Klamm, infection preventionist and program lead, reported that WhidbeyHealth continues to provide top of class, safe and quality care across the continuum of health care available on Whidbey Island. For more than a year, WhidbeyHealth has been free of any surgical site infections and has had a 0% infection rate for device-associated infections in some areas for nearly 15 years.

A health-care-associated infection is an infection that develops during or soon after receiving health care services or staying in a health care setting. Infections are a serious problem, and many are preventable. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cites that on any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one health-care-associated infection.

“Sustaining a zero health-care-associated infection rate and like-minded practice culture takes many people coming together, working towards a common goal,” Klamm said. “Beyond the surgeons, it takes coordinated efforts from environmental services, sterile processing, registered nurses, technicians and our anesthesia team to create an infection-free environment.”

WhidbeyHealth had no surgical site infections since May 2022 (inpatient and outpatient procedures); no urinary catheter infections since 2019; no ventilator infections since 2015 and no central line infections since 2009.

“The tremendous success of our infection prevention program is an important factor in the quality of care our community can expect to receive at WhidbeyHealth,” Executive Director of Quality Shanna Harney-Bates said. “These results paint a picture of what our community can expect from WhidbeyHealth – safe, quality care.”