ABSTRACT
Objectives: To study the impact of a quality improvement (QI)initiative using care bundle approach on Central-line associatedbloodstream infections (CLABSI) rates.Methods: A QI team for infection control in NICU was formed in atertiary-care neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) from June 2015to August 2016. Baseline data were collected over first 3 monthsfollowed by the intervention period of 1 year. Measures withrespect to strengthening hand hygiene and central line bundlecare were implemented during the intervention period. Auditsassessing the compliance to hand hygiene and CLABSI bundleprotocols were used as process indicators. Multiple PDSA cycleswere used to strengthen the practices of proposed interventions,documentation of data and audits of the processes during thestudy period.Results: The QI initiative achieved a 89% reduction in CLABSIfrom the baseline rate of 31.7 to 3.5 per 1000 line-days. The bloodstream Infections reduced from 7.3 to 2.3 per 1000 patient-days.The overall mortality showed a reduction from 2.9% to 1.7 %during the intervention period. There was a significantimprovement in compliance with hand hygiene protocol andcompliance with CLABSI protocols.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that simple measuresinvolving hand hygiene and strengthening of the care bundleapproach through quality improvement could significantly reducethe blood stream Infections and CLABSI rates