Katy Folk-Way plays an active role in the UW Medical Center’s (UWMC) infection control program. A UW employee and hospital volunteer, she appears on a poster to increase awareness about hand hygiene: We all help keep patients safe. Please clean your hands, the poster reads.

Her husband, Kim Folk, died at UWMC in 2005 from health-related complications following two liver transplants. He had multiple infections when he died, a fact that was noted on the death certificate, she said. “Who knows if he would have lived without the infections? But every infection we prevent now is an increased chance at survival,” she said.

All three medical centers in the UW Medicine health system鈥擧arborview Medical Center, Northwest Hospital & Medical Center and UWMC鈥攈ave witnessed recent significant improvements in infection control efforts. Harborview and UW Medical Center were recognized in October 2010 by the Washington State Hospital Association for outstanding hand hygiene practices, earning “Best Hands on Care” awards. Harborview was also recently lauded by Qualis Health with a “Safe in our hands” award that recognized the medical center’s hand hygiene improvement initiative.

Harborview Medical Center has achieved a 50 percent decrease in the number of patients with hospital-acquired MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) and ventilator-associated pneumonia between 2007 and 2009. That drop comes despite a patient population uniquely prone to such infections.

“While our patients may be at an increased risk for infection due to the nature of their injuries, we can still reduce infections by doing everything we know we should be doing with every patient,” said Dr. Tim Dellit, a UW Medicine physician, associate medical director and head of infection control at Harborview Medical Center.

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center, Harborview and UWMC have implemented “secret shopper” programs to observe hand hygiene practices and, subsequently, provide a report to each patient care unit and department about how they fared. Observations have expanded to include sanitation practices assessment and use of infection precautions.

Northwest Hospital has had three central line-associated infections in the intensive care unit over the last four and one-half years, a figure that ranks well when compared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s average benchmark for similar units. The infection rate is low following implementation of several .

“Our effort to prevent infections in the hospital also includes targeted testing to identify organisms that patients bring into the hospital that may affect their care and cause complications,” said Dr. Gregory Schroedl, vice president, medical and chief quality officer at Northwest Hospital. “Screening select patients for dangerous organisms鈥攚hich is conducted across the UW Medicine health system鈥攈elps us provide better care and reduces the chance of spreading infection to others.”

UWMC set a goal more than one year ago to reduce healthcare-associated infections by 50 percent. Officials there recently celebrated success, coming within a few percentage points of the goal: 46 percent reduction in central line infections. Hand hygiene efforts, audited by observations, is near-perfect at UWMC, too. The compliance rate for 1,009 observations of nurses, medical and health assistants in June 2010 was 100 percent. Overall compliance for 1,866 observations was 99 percent.

Dr. Estella Whimbey, associate medical director at UWMC and a UW Medicine physician, said support to reach these goals is coming from the highest levels. “These are ambitious goals, but we’ve dedicated the resources and teams to make this happen,” she said. “The culture here has changed by having so many people engaged.”

One big coordinated step UW Medicine has taken to wipe out central line infections is implementing a standardized education and training program for placement of central line catheters. If the training is not complete, physicians are not allowed to perform the procedure. can help reduce a patient’s length of stay in an intensive care unit (ICU), ICU mortality and overall hospital mortality.

In addition, when a healthcare-associated infection occurs within the UW Medicine system, teams on the unit perform an intensive case review to determine what could have been done differently. “It makes the case real for the teams,” said Dellit. “They attach a name and a person to that infection. Staff go from thinking about the individual patient to the impact this had on everyone on the team, including the patient and family members.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, UW Medicine and signed documents that would expand an existing program agreement to make Northwest Hospital one of the entities of the UW Medicine health system.

The 天美影视传媒 Board of Regents endorsed the expanded affiliation agreement at its Sept. 17 meeting. This transaction will make Northwest Hospital the newest clinical unit of UW Medicine effective Jan. 1, 2010. Northwest Hospital will join the current six UW Medicine clinical units that include Harborview Medical Center, 天美影视传媒 Medical Center, UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, 天美影视传媒 Physicians, Airlift Northwest and the UW School of Medicine. UW Medicine is also a corporate member of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Children’s University Medical Group and has close affiliations with Seattle Children’s, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

“By executing these final documents, we are well on our way to completing the Northwest hospital transaction,” said Paul Ramsey, MD, CEO of UW Medicine and dean of the 天美影视传媒 School of Medicine. “One of our first steps will be to begin integrating Northwest Hospital into UW Medicine’s strategic planning initiative early in 2010. We are very excited about the many possibilities that this new relationship will offer, and look forward to working with the excellent leadership team at Northwest Hospital.”

“Today’s signing brings us one step closer to closing our affiliation with UW Medicine, and closer to the opportunity to work together and explore what we can accomplish as a team,” said Bill Schneider, CEO of Northwest Hospital. “We are excited to begin the strategic planning process after the first of the year, and to combine our organizations’ talents and strengths into the partnership we’ve all envisioned.”

UW Medicine has had a relationship with Northwest Hospital since 1997, when the two entities signed a Cooperative Program Agreement to establish a long-term and durable relationship to collaborate on selected patient care, clinical research and educational activities. In 1998, a Northwest Hospital-based UW Medicine cardiac surgery program was developed. It is now ranked as the leading cardiac surgery program in the Puget Sound region. UW and Northwest Hospital anticipate the first opportunities for clinical collaboration under the new affiliation will center around cardiovascular services, oncology services and maternal and child health.

“It is clear that our successful existing relationship, as well as the potential for new programs in clinical care, teaching and research helped lead us to this new transaction,” said Ramsey. “We look forward to working closely with Northwest Hospital to improve the health of the public.”

About Northwest Hospital & Medical Center

Founded in 1960, Northwest Hospital & Medical Center is a full-service, non-profit hospital located minutes north of downtown Seattle. With 281 licensed beds, more than 1,600 employees and all private rooms, it offers some of the most innovative, technologically advanced medical care available. Major clinical programs and services include: emergency services; critical care; cardiac care; neurosciences; stroke center; cancer care; childbirth services; bariatric surgery; sports medicine; medical rehabilitation; geropsychiatric center; Gamma Knife庐 Center; diagnostic imaging; laboratory services; and education and wellness programs, among others. For more information about Northwest Hospital and its programs and services, call (206) 364-0500 or (206) 633-4636 for the Physician Referral Line, or visit the .

About UW Medicine

UW Medicine trains new physicians and medical scientists, researches health and disease, and provides primary and specialty care to patients from Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest. The UW Medicine health system includes UW Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, the UW School of Medicine, UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, UW Physicians, Airlift Northwest, and the UW’s corporate memberships in the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance with Seattle Children’s and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Children’s University Medical Group with Seattle Children’s Hosptial. UW Medicine has major academic and service affiliations with Seattle Children’s Hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the Veteran’s Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle and the VA Hospital in Boise. The UW School of Medicine is the top public institution in federal funding for biomedical research. Among its 2,002 full-time faculty and 4,874 volunteer and part-time faculty are five Nobel Laureates, 32 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and 33 members of the Institute of Medicine. For more information about UW Medicine, visit its .