• Adrienne P Savant, Catherine O'Malley, Stacy Bichl, and Susanna A McColley.
• Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, , Chicago, Illinois, USA.
• BMJ Qual Saf. 2014 Apr 1;23 Suppl 1:i73-i80.

ObjectiveTo reduce the risk of pathogen transmission between patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and decrease the rate of acquisition of new CF pathogens in our patients.DesignUsing the Model for Improvement, we developed a new process for infection prevention and control in our outpatient CF clinics.SettingPaediatric CF programme at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; approximately 180 paediatric patients aged birth to 21 years.ParticipantsAll paediatric patients enrolled in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Data Registry at this institution.InterventionsImplemented contact precautions with all patients, regardless of respiratory tract culture results.MeasurementRespiratory tract culture rates of specific pathogens by quarter were compared prior to and after implementation.ResultsOur percentage of patients with a positive respiratory tract culture for Pseudomonas aeruginosa dropped from 30% to 21% (p<0.0001) and for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) dropped from 10.8% to 8.7% (p=0.008).ConclusionsUse of contact precautions by all care providers, for all patients, regardless of respiratory tract culture results resulted in decreased P aeruginosa and MRSA infection rates.

34 keywords...

hide…