Healthy People 2020 Essay

Health care professionals have always been striving for higher standards of individual health in the healthcare industry. The US is globally known for providing the best health care possible, regardless of nationality. Their providence of healthcare in the US does not stop at the doors of hospitals, rather it goes beyond to its research of identifying the microorganisms, making of vaccine, and developing a line of drugs with fewer adverse affects. In order to achieve these goals, the US government has provided immense support by sanctioning grants and hiring brilliant minds to work toward a common goal. Healthy People 2020 (2014) was developed to further the research in eradicating health problems by identifying goals for next the 10 years.

Healthy People 2020 also provides updated data by state and practice of certain medical procedures.
Healthy People 2020
The primary goal of Healthy People 2020 (2014) is to establish a benchmark for the next decade, and monitor strategically developed programs to conquer identified challenges by the healthcare inspectors.

It “reflects the commitment by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to preventing HAIs” (Healthy People 2020, 2014, para. #4). Healthy People 2020’s goals are to prevent morbidity, and prevail well-being by decreasing disease. Most common types of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) identified by the Health People 2020 (2014) website include “catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, bloodstream infections, pneumonia and clostridium difficile” (2014, para. #6). However, the health care industry faces many challenges; one of them being an increased costs caused by previously mentioned invasive procedures and devices used in medical procedures (Healthy People 2020, 2014). Through Healthy People, the US government works to educate people about preventative care and provides extensive research for health care professionals regarding improvement in techniques of certain medical procedures along with their

rationales.
Objective: Healthcare-Associated Infections
One of the goals of Healthy People 2020 (2014) is to reduce HAIs in the US. Healthcare-associated infections are such infections which patients get them while staying in a health care facility, especially at a hospital. Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is a typical kind of HAI identified by Healthy People 2020 (2014). Central line-associated bloodstream infections are infection in the bloodstream, when bacteria enters patients’ central line catheter. Central line “is a tube which goes in your vein in your chest and ends in your heart”. (Medline Plus, 2017, para. #1). Based on the data collected by National Health Care Safety Network, the Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) reported at National level was 1.00 during 2006-2008, with the desired decrease in ratio to 0.25 SIR or approximately 75% reduction (as cited in Healthy People 2020, 2014). The last data available for the year 2014 reported the SIR of 0.50 for the nation, nevertheless above the desired ratio.
In Texas, the SIR reported during the year 2010 was 0.64 compared to the most recent SIR of 0.51 in the year 2013 (Healthy People 2020, 2014). According to the 2014 annual report published by the Texas Department of State Health Services, 430 Texas healthcare facilities reported 852 CLABSIs with SIR of 0.455 in the year 2014 (as cited in Healthy People 2020, 2014). Texas intensive care units (ICUS) reported 849 CLABSIs compared to 1,864 CLABSIs that was predicted based on the historical national data for the years 2006-2008 (as cited in Healthy People 2020, 2014). Texas has historically demonstrated better SIR compared to the national SIR as noted above. The gradual decrease in SIR for the nation and the Texas state level indicates the improvement made in the past five years in decreasing the HAIs related CLABSIs. Although the decrease in SIR has shown positive impact towards implementing best practices and more compliance in the health care industry, continued improvements and implementation are needed to achieve the desired SIR of 0.25 by the target year 2020.
Journal Article
The main argument of why CLABSI is as a major issue as nosocomial infection is because it is spread due to the techniques used to obtain blood cultures. Additionally, when the patients are ignored to change dirty dressing and left on disrupted dressing, such negligence has contributed to the rising cases of central line-associated bloodstream infections. According to the article The Bundle Plus suggested the use of minocycline/rifampin (MR) catheters, chlorhexidine (CHG) solution to cleanse the skin, CHG sponge dressing for catheter, implementation of education program on collecting blood cultures, emphasis on hand hygiene, and “empowering the bedside nurse to stop the procedure if elements in the checklist/procedure were not followed” (Matthias et al., 2013). This article also suggests that decrease in commensal can be reached with the help of the above mentioned items and because of which peripherally inserted central catheter lines can be used safely (Matthias et al., 2013).
Another issue associated with the CLABSIs is cost and length of stay. It impacts to both, patient and hospital. In Matthias et., al (2013) informs that it may cost a few extra dollars to use CHG solutions for cleaning and preparing purposes. However, it will not only decrease the length of stay in hospital by approximately 19 days, nevertheless, it will also help decrease the costs on hospitals due to those lengthy number of stay days (Anthony, 2014). Research also suggests that an average of $55,000 -$65,000 can be saved depending on patient’s type of CLABSI contracted and course of antibiotic (Anthony, 2014).
Correlation of Articles to Issues
Researches were done on ICU patients, as this is the population who requires central line catheters.

Furthermore, this makes them an ideal population which demonstrates vulnerable immune system and prone to ward off infections with much weaker internal defense system available to them. These patients are already exposed to different types of commensals inside and out of their bodies. This makes it extremely important for ICU caregivers to follow strict procedure/checklist so that external bacteria will not infiltrate through invasive central line-catheter. This also helps reduce stress on patients and costs on

hospitals.
Effect on Nurses
Evidence-based practice teaches importance of proper prevention and coordinated activities between the health care facilities that can lead to significant amount of cost saving in the medical field. One way to prevent and to reduce the risk of HAIs is to train and provide evidence-based education to the health care staff. Nurses should be watchful of the potential risks, and to use their authority to advocate if the proper procedure by any other medical staff isn’t properly followed. By adopting researched based practices in day-to-day work can substantially reduce risk and costs from acquiring central line-associated bloodstream infections.