Intervention Phase
While interventions were being designed, at the end of March 2017, CLEO delivered a training course to infection prevention champions at our main offices in Athens. The purpose of this "Train the trainers" course was to educate on how best to implement a series of measures (so-called 'bundles') that help increase compliance with good hand hygiene (HH) practices and prevent microbial infections associated with a central line (CLABSI).
Among the core topics of the course, participants learned to discern whom to train (doctors, nurses, new staff etc.), to evaluate training and to monitor trained personnel. They were provided training material on 4 topics (hand hygiene, insertion, access and change of dressing). Indicatively, the new responsibilities of each unit representative trained in the course included conducting training courses for all staff in the department, distributing educational material, poster posting, filling out checklists, and maintaining open communication with the CLEO team for any problems or clarifications.
Overall, the course received highly positive feedback and contributed to strengthening relationships among all participants and CLEO's infection prevention experts. Following the training, interventions on HH and CLABSI started in early April of 2017.
Similarly, training and interventions against CAUTI, VAE, PAP and Antibiotic use started in the Autumn of 2017.
For the implementation of each intervention, CLEO’s infection prevention experts visited each site and first met with hospital administrators, IC committees and clinic leaders not only to disseminate the results from the Baseline phase, as well as to ensure the continued commitment to the interventions planned by all parties. Following the approval and commitment from local leadership, other stages of interventions included the developmennt of specialised educational programs, the dissemination of the educational material (also including poster hanging), routine checks and monitoring through filling out checklists, audits all while receiving feedback from participating units for the success of the interventions.
