As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge here at home and across the nation, the people of Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center are working together across units and disciplines to develop and implement strategies for preparedness, response, and recovery.

In health care, we are being careful stewards of both our supply chain and our financial resources, and we continue working to ensure the ongoing confidence of our patients and their loved ones. Our discovery and public health teams are involved in meaningful research and initiatives that are helping make inroads into global understanding, prevention, and equitable treatment of the virus. And across the entirety of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, we are collaborating closely with our peer health systems and with state and local governments; leveraging the goodwill and support of our community; and above all, focusing on our wonderful people.

Obviously, we still have a long road ahead in terms of eradicating the pandemic and recovering from its toll on our institution, our community, and our country. But I want you to know that we are devoting everything we have to this effort and that I have full confidence in our ability to make real progress together.

Thank you for your patience and your support in helping us get through this challenging time, together.

The Infection Prevention team at Emory University Hospital Midtown leveraged their diverse, complementary expertise and a relentless focus on relationship-building to enhance perception of the infection prevention and control (IPC) function at their facility and reduce healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates.

Two years ago, the newly re-structured Emory Midtown IPC team set a goal to increase both their visibility and their partnership with the hospital’s clinical units. “We needed to change perception of the IPC function and be viewed as partners,” Infection Prevention Manager Jill Holdsworth said. 

Relationship-building became a guiding principle for the department, starting with ensuring that relationships within the IPC team were strong. As the first non-nurse infection preventionist at Emory, Holdsworth saw value in a diverse IPC team and sought candidates with a variety of backgrounds. All team members participated in interviews to ensure new hires would be a good fit, and the resulting team works exceptionally well together.

This relationship-focused approach was applied to the broader organization as well. The IPC team conducts daily rounding on all units, actively engaging with front-line team members. “You need to be on the floor every day, even if it’s just for staff to see you,” Paul Gentile said.

The team created an HAI-focused multi-disciplinary steering committee with IPC team members and nurses co-leading specific HAI reduction groups. These groups develop and implement standardized, apparent-cause HAI analysis templates to identify common failure modes and implement corresponding, targeted interventions.

Over the past two years, Emory Midtown has achieved significant HAI reductions, including a 50 percent decrease in catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Importantly, the organizational perspective on the IPC function has also improved significantly.

“This team changed the entire culture of how the hospital views the IPC program,” Emory Healthcare’s Infection Prevention Program Director Kari Love said.

Vandana Niyyar, professor in the Division of Renal Medicine, received the 2020 Distinguished Clinical Service Award from the American Society of Nephrology.

Nanette Wenger, professor emeritus in the Division of Cardiology and founding consultant of Emory Women’s Heart Center, is the recipient of the American Heart Association’s 2020 Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award.