Success in Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infections:
Long Beach Medical Center is reducing hospital-acquired infections and ultimately saving lives through its CLABS initiative. The acronym CLABS stands for Central Line Associated Blood Stream infections. By putting new evidence-based infection control protocols into practice, the Medical Center has not only reduced its number of CLABS infections, but is also decreasing hospital length of stay and saving precious health care dollars.
Long Beach Medical Center piloted the CLABS program in its intensive care unit (ICU) before rolling the program out throughout the hospital. The Medical Center recently celebrated a full year with no CLABS infections in its ICU and expectations remain high as the staff works toward a goal of zero infections throughout the institution.
“The safety of our patients is paramount at Long Beach Medical Center,” says Douglas Melzer, CEO. “The success of our CLABS initiative is a direct result of the staff’s collaborative efforts and constant attention to infection control prevention.”