Prevention of Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infection (CLABSI) in Adult ICU Patients

Practice Problem: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) account for most hospital-associated preventable infections in the United States and globally. Implementation of a multifaceted approach including evidence-based CLABSI bundle care has shown to prevent this infection in patients with a central line. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was that in adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients, how does the use of central line bundle care compared to central line care without bundle decrease central line-associated bloodstream infections within eight weeks? Evidence: The evidence from a rigorous literature review showed that using a central line bundle care program in adult ICU patients effectively decreases CLABSI infection. The bundled care program includes the implementation of bundled care interventions through infection surveillance, infection control, and staff education. Intervention: The intervention for the change project included developing ICU staff nurses\u27 competency and compliance in implementing CLABSI bundle care. The ICU educator\u27s competency in conducting all future staff training and periodic compliance auditing related to CLABSI was also developed as a part of this project. Outcome: The project results revealed an effective clinical impact on the CLABSI prevention care as evidenced by increased use of midline catheters as a central line replacement, a decrease in the number of days the central line is left in place, and a decreased CLABSI infection rate. Conclusion: The project aimed to evaluate the efficacy of bundle care in patients admitted to ICU with a central line and provided well-grounded CLABSI prevention practice recommendations to decrease negative clinical outcomes, including but are not limited to the extended hospital stay, significant morbidity, mortality, and increased healthcare costs