This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

To determine the effects of quality improvement strategies on promoting adherence to interventions for prevention of selected (surgical site infections (SSI), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and catheterassociated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)) healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and on HAI rates.

The evidence for quality improvement strategies to improve adherence to preventive interventions for healthcare-associated infections is generally of suboptimal quality, consisting primarily of single-center, simple before-after studies of limited internal and external validity. Thus, we were unable to reach any firm conclusions regarding actionable QI strategies to prevent HAIs. Based on the limited available data, we suggest that the following strategies are worthy of future study, and possibly wider implementation:

Use of printed or computer-based reminders with automatic stop orders to reduce unnecessary urethral catheterization.

Printed or computer-based reminders to improve surgical antibiotic prophylaxis Active educational interventions with use of of checklists to improve adherence to central line insertion practices

Active educational interventions such as tutorials to improve adherence to preventive interventions for ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Higher quality studies of QI strategies for HAI prevention are urgently needed.