Hospital-acquired infections have made news in the past year, as Center for Disease Control statistics show that 1.7 million people a year get infections while they are in a hospital. As a result, there’s a growing awareness by hospital staffs that precautions are necessary to halt the trend.

Copper Basin Medical Center is no exception. In fact, infection control specialist Nancy Gessling MSN, RN, CIC, has been asked to share her secrets with other rural hospitals as part of a state collaborative to reduce healthcare-acquired infections. CBMC is a partner in the Tennessee Hospital Association’s Center for Patient Safety.

Gessling, who has a national certificate in infection control, said the local hospital has adopted evidence-based strategies to reduce infections and it is working, as shown by a reduction in MRSA cases. MRSA is a hard-to-treat staph infection that could be spread from those who do not even know they have it. In a hospital, that means the infection could be spread to other patients, who are more vulnerable than healthy people.

Gessling said her goal is to use prevention to keep patients safe while they are in the hospital, and also to keep the staff safe. The key is looking at high-risk groups, such as the frail, elderly and those with chronic infections, in order to determine whether they have “colonization” even though they may not show signs of infection. In other words, they could be carriers of the infection, which means contact with them could spread the infection to other patients.

If an assessment indicates a patient could be a high risk, certain steps are automatically put into place, beginning with a culture to test for the infection. The patient is put into “isolation,” which means that hospital staff put on gowns and wear gloves when they enter the room, then remove them as they leave. This keeps them from accidentally picking up the infection on their clothing and taking it to other areas of the hospital. Visitors are asked to wash their hands when they come into the room and when they leave, a practice that staff is to use in all patient rooms. Some patients felt targeted at first, she said, but the nurses talk to the families to help them understand the benefits and the process, which will be repeated if the patient returns at another time.

Using these common sense measures, she said, has drastically reduced the transmission of infection from one patient to another. Gessling said they are focusing on MRSA but also use CDC criteria for reducing transmission of all sorts of different drug-resistant infections.

As a member of the education committee of the state’s infection prevention group, Gessling talked about the good results at CBMC and was asked to do talks at meetings all over the state. She said not too many small critical care hospitals have been able to put strategies in place because there are not a lot of resources, but she added there are steps that can be taken. She said several nurses have contacted her for mentoring and help with research and she has benefited by seeing what the larger hospitals are doing.

She said the meetings give her a chance to brag on the wonderful nursing staff at the hospital, adding they understand the need for putting strict guidelines into effect. That makes all the difference in keeping both staff and patients safe, she said.

Gessling explained that all hospitals are required to have somebody in charge of infection control, but a lot of small hospitals have a hard time getting somebody who wants to do the job. “You have to really love it,” she said, admitting she loves research and statistics. Most specialists work in big medical centers where the financial rewards are better and there are more resources. She’s an exception -- “I like living in the country.” She said she chose to come to the Copper Basin, noting she loves the area and the people in the Basin deserve the very best healthcare.

Part of her job, she said, is “being the bad guy.” She makes sure that the staff -- doctors as well as nurses -- are following the guidelines. “They know I’m watching,” she said, explaining that observation sheets are a required part of her job. She added the staff has seen the success and know this is a good thing. She said she is blessed to have support from the top down. “We’re not just trying to meet the requirements. We’re trying to embrace and exceed them.”

She said the growing publicity about hospital-acquired infections is a good thing because the people have the right to know and are also more likely to understand the importance of steps for prevention.