Dive Brief:
- A new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control concluded that a weekly "email intervention" helped cut rates of a superbug infection at a Florida hospital by more than one half, FierceHealthcare reports.
- To conduct the study, the researchers looked at rates of the superbug called Acinetobacter baumannii from January 2010 through June 2013. The 1,500-bed hospital had reported the presence of the superbug for nearly two decades prior to the study, according to FierceHealthcare.
- However, when the hospital sent a weekly email to hospital leaders including action plans designed to improve infection control, transmission rates fell by 63%.
Dive Insight:
So, why did the superbug transmission rate fall so dramatically after decades of being entrenched? According to study author Silvia Munoz-Price Of the University Of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the reasons probably included a combination of education, communication, feedback and peer pressure, reports FierceHealthcare. It's likely other institutions will experiment with this approach, given how simple it is to use email to make things happen.