Stories of Care CDC Project Firstline

In this episode of Stories of Care, we talk with Michelle Doll, MD, a health system epidemiologist with Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, about the importance of hand hygiene in health care settings. Dr. Doll discusses challenges with and strategies for improving hand hygiene, the impact of automated monitoring systems, the role of different health care professionals and the patient perspective on hand hygiene. She emphasizes the importance of hand hygiene in preventing infections and encourages health care professionals to be open to considering opportunities for improvement. 

Approximately 15% of Americans live in a rural setting, and they are at a greater risk of death from 5 leading causes (heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease) than urban Americans.  Studies looking at rural hospitals note unique challenges: health care staff shortages, relative geographic isolation and difficulty in accessing mentoring in IPC and disconnects between local needs and upper-level mandates. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Michael Stevens, a Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and West Virginia University Health System's System Healthcare Epidemiologist. Listen as Dr. Stevens addresses these challenges and celebrates the resiliency of infection prevention in rural facilities.

Structural racism affects many aspects of life – residential segregation, quality of education, and economic potential.  In addition, health care delivery is affected by structural racism.  In the 2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report, Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander patients were reported to receive worse care than White patients for 35–40% of quality measures evaluated.  Recent studies have looked at whether health care-associated infections (HAIs) are also affected by a patient’s race and ethnic background. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California San Diego. Listen as Dr. Abdul-Mutakabbir discusses her passion for examining racial disparities in health care associated infections and why it’s important to encourage more researchers to look through this lens.

No patient expects to get an infection in the hospital that they did not arrive with, yet over 500,000 patients do each year (about 1 in every 31 patients).  Patients who suffer from health care associated infections, or HAIs, have higher morbidity and mortality than those who don’t. These preventable infections impact patients and families alike.  Dr. Tuan Ta, an infectious diseases physician, shares how his family was impacted when his premature son developed an infection in the NICU. Focusing on improving infection prevention and control measures can ensure that other families don’t have to suffer through this same experience.   

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Amina Ahmed, Pediatric Hospital Epidemiologist and Division Chair of Infectious Diseases at Atrium Health, to discuss tuberculosis in the United States. Patient isolation and appropriate PPE for health care professionals can prevent tuberculosis from spreading while the patient is being treated, but isolation can be a difficult experience for patients and their families. Listen to how Dr. Ahmed approaches infection control related to TB treatment using empathy and education.  

 

To earn CME for listening, visit amafirstlinestories.org and click on the title of this episode to complete the quiz. 

While masking has been established as an effective way to help prevent the spread of respiratory illness, it has created substantial challenges for people and physicians with hearing loss. Dr. Joanne Turner Bisgrove is a Family Medicine physician and anti-ableism advocate. Dr. Bisgrove outlines her experience as a physician with hearing impairment in a pandemic that required everyone to wear masks, limiting her ability to read lips and hear her patients. She discusses her struggles and shares her ultimate message of how physicians can truly be inclusive while not sacrificing the safety of patients and themselves.