HAI Risk Assessment and Prevention Rounding

Key Points

  • HAIs are preventable complications linked to system adherence and individual practice.
  • Risk increases with longer hospitalization, invasive procedures, comorbid disease burden, and higher antibiotic exposure.
  • Routine risk-focused rounding supports early correction of prevention gaps.

Equipment

  • Current isolation and infection-control policy references
  • Bedside checklist for invasive devices and ongoing indications
  • Documentation tool for hand hygiene, PPE, and environmental safety findings
  • Escalation pathway for immediate correction of prevention failures

Procedure Steps

  1. Review patient risk profile before rounding: immune status, age, comorbidities, hospitalization length, procedure history, and antibiotic exposure.
  2. Identify active invasive devices and confirm each device still has a current indication.
  3. Assess adherence to hand hygiene and precaution workflow during care interactions.
  4. Evaluate room and equipment contamination risk and verify disinfection processes are active.
  5. Confirm route-specific precaution setup (standard plus transmission-based if ordered) is visible and complete.
  6. Prioritize high-risk HAI pathways (for example CAUTI, CLABSI, VAP, and SSI contexts) based on patient status.
  7. Implement immediate corrective actions for any observed prevention gap.
  8. Communicate findings to the care team and assign accountable follow-up actions.
  9. Reassess on next round and trend risk changes across the admission course.

Common Errors

  • Failing to reassess ongoing device need prolonged exposure and preventable device-associated infection risk.
  • Inconsistent policy adherence checks delayed detection of unsafe routine drift.
  • Treating rounding as documentation-only task missed real-time prevention opportunities.
  • Poor team handoff of identified risks repeated unresolved safety gaps.