Montebello, Calif.-based Beverly Hospital has achieved significant improvements in its hospital-acquired infection rates since implementing Lean management principles in 2017, according to Dr. Alfonso Torress-Cook, the hospital's director of epidemiology.
The efforts involved strict quality control efforts, innovative disinfectant measures, and basic environmental and patient cleanliness methods, along with use of an algorithm to reduce Clostridium difficile infections.
The hospital reported 48 C. difficile infections in 2016 and just 28 in 2018, the hospital told Becker's. As of this November, the hospital had a standardized infection ratio of 0.58.
Editor's note: This article was updated Dec. 10 at 3:55 p.m.