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Dr. Anne Matlow leads the charge to keep tiny patients safe from bloodstream infections - things "can be done" to make hospitals safer.

Canadians see their hospitals as institutions of healing.  They do not expect hospitals to make them sick.  Yet, each year thousands of Canadians fall victim to nasty infections they catch while in the hospital - infections that kill thousands of patients every year.

Some 220,000 Canadians contract hospital acquired infections (HAI) every year, and 8,000 of them die from these infections.¹  The most costly and life-threatening of these are bloodstream infections (BSI), which can add $28,000 to the cost of treating a patient² and increase the mortality rate for infected patients by 18 per cent compared to patients without BSI.¹

 "For patients in hospital, the bulk of bloodstream infections are caused by catheterization," says Dr. Anne Matlow, Director of Infection Prevention and Control and Medical Director of Patient Safety at Toronto's renowned Hospital for Sick Children.

She points to a recent study that found 83 per cent of BSI in pediatric patients, the youngest and most vulnerable people in our healthcare system, were related to central venous catheters.³

Intravenous (IV) Catheters allow hospitalized patients to receive a steady supply of medications or fluids delivered directly into their blood stream.  One end of the catheter is inserted into a vein.  At the other end is an open connection or "port" through which fluids can be injected or delivery lines attached.

"Any time you have IVs there are opportunities to introduce some bugs," says Dr. Matlow, who explains pathogens can get into the body on the outside of the catheter, where it enters the skin, or directly into the bloodstream along the inside of the catheter, entering through the open "port".

To prevent the first type of infection, healthcare workers follow proper aseptic techniques, including swabbing the area as well as the injection cap, to disinfect it.  The second type of infection can be difficult to prevent using conventional needle-based technology that requires a needle to puncture through a rubber dam on an injection cap, or opening the "port" by disconnecting the catheter from delivery lines in order to access the line.

"You're always opening it up and are basically inches away from the patient's blood stream," explains Dr. Matlow.

Modern "needle-less" technologies now help reduce opportunities for infectious organisms to enter a patient's blood stream.  Needle-less IV Connectors attach to both catheters and to the drug bags or sachets that carry medicines or fluids to be infused into the patient's bloodstream.  The Connectors can be "plugged" or "twisted" together without using a sharp needle - and without opening the line and exposing the bloodstream.

"If you can close the port and access the bloodstream through this little device, then you're not as close to the open bloodstream all the time," says Dr. Matlow.  "It gives you a layer of protection."

Needle-less IV Connectors provide additional advantages.  They are more easily disinfected than traditional systems and help protect staff and patients from accidental needle "sticks" that may transmit pathogens.  Newer technology also incorporates "anti-microbial" coatings that have been shown to prevent contamination and growth of a broad spectrum of pathogens on the Connector surfaces.

Technology Overview

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