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An intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU
Pronovost P, Needham D, Berenholtz S, et al. An intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006 Dec 28;355(26):2725-2732.

The authors studied an evidence-based intervention that comprises five specific procedures to see how well they might reduce the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infections in ICU patients: hand washing; full barrier precautions; cleaning skin with chlorhexidine; avoiding the femoral site; and removing catethers as soon as no longer needed. Results showed that the infection rate reduced by up to 66 percent with minimal new costs to implement the intervention.



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