The Network Approach for Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections: Long-Term Effect of Participation in the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network

Objective. To describe the rates of several key outcomes and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) among hospitals that participated in the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON).Design and Setting. Prospective, observational cohort study of patients admitted to 24 community hospitals from 2003 through 2009.Methods. The following data were collected and analyzed: incidence of central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), and HAIs caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA); employee exposures to bloodborne pathogens (EBBPs); physician EBBPs; patient-days; central line–days; ventilator-days; and urinary catheter–days. Poisson regression was used to determine whether incidence rates of these HAIs and exposures changed during the first 5 and 7 years of participation in DICON; nonrandom clustering of each outcome was controlled for. Cost saved and lives saved were calculated on...