A bacteria scare in the neonatal intensive care unit at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital this winter prompted a visit from outside health inspectors but no babies were sickened, the hospital’s medical director said.
“Nobody had any adverse outcome and they’ve all been discharged to home,” Dr. Alan Kohrt said in a Wednesday phone interview.
This winter, 19 babies in the NICU were colonized – but not actually infected – with one or two strains of bacteria that typically cause pneumonia or other diseases, he said.
In late January, the hospital’s high-tech monitoring system alerted doctors to the presence of the bacteria – multi-drug resistant acinetobacter and stenotrophomonas. Acinetobacter is not usually found in an NICU population, he said. The alert prompted an immediate hospital-wide response, he said.
“This wasn’t something that was just referred to folks in NICU and infection control, but everybody from myself on down to every floor nurse was involved in addressing this,” Dr. Kohrt said.
The affected babies were separated from others and extra nurses were assigned to care for them, he said.
Since T.C. Thompson is a part of Erlanger hospital, Erlanger’s infection control team did an inspection and stressed to staff members the importance of environmental cleanliness and vigilance in handwashing, Dr. Kohrt said.
The state health department is still conducting an investigation of the situation, primarily because state officials hope Erlanger and T.C. Thompson’s aggressive response can be a model for other hospitals, said Dr. Marion Kainer, medical epidemiologist with the Tennessee Department of Health.
“Erlanger actually did a wonderful job of getting on top of this really promptly,” she said.
In February, an anonymous complaint about the NICU situation prompted an unannounced visit from the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Heathcare Organizations, the nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals.
The commission inspected the neonatal unit and recommended improvements in areas of infection control and leadership standards, which can include ensuring that appropriate resources – financial or human – are allocated to patient safety, said Joint Commission spokesman Ken Powers.
“They responded to the findings. Now the Joint Commission continues to monitor for success,” he said.
The NICU staff was open about the situation with new parents, Dr. Kohrt said.
“We put together talking points so that every new baby that came into that nursery, their parents were told what was going on,” he said.
Officials are unsure if the bacteria was brought in from outside the hospital or from a staff member.
“Many times when you do this, you never find what’s caused it, the smoking gun,” Dr. Kohrt said.
Hospital board members were briefed on the situation in February, said board Chairman Dan Quarles on Wednesday.
“It’s not something we were real happy about, but … over time these types of things happen in practically every hospital in the country,” he said. “We followed the proper protocols and, as I’ve been informed, we had a very positive outcome.”
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