Patient safety surveillance at Henry Ford

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit has selected TheraDoc’s unique patient safety surveillance and clinical decision support technology as part of its programs to combat healthcare-acquired infections and drug-resistant infectious diseases in the hospital and surrounding community.

Henry Ford Hospital pharmacists and infection prevention practitioners will use the TheraDoc Infection Control Assistant for hospital-wide infection surveillance and reporting and the Antibiotic Assistant for individual patient-based infection management and antimicrobial stewardship. Suboptimal use of antibiotics has contributed to an alarming rise in resistant infectious diseases, including MRSA. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70 percent of bacteria that cause healthcare-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat them. Antimicrobial stewardship plays a critical role in fighting antibiotic resistance by helping to ensure appropriate drug selection, dosing, and duration to cure infections, while minimizing toxicity and conditions for emergence of resistant bacterial strains. (Ed Szandzik, R.Ph., M.B.A., director of pharmacy, Henry Ford Hospital.) www.henryford.com.