On Monday, July 9, 2018, the first prize in the Patient Safety Awards in the category "Prevention and Control of Infections", held in Manchester, UK, was awarded to the Ph.D. student of the Nursing Department of CUT Stelios Iordanou.
This is a research work conducted by the PhD candidate, under the supervision of the former Associate Professor of CUT and currently Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Quality and Safety at Health Services Avedis Donabedian Vasilios Raptopoulos, the co-sponsorship of the Associate Professor of CUT Nikos Mitletton, and the former Associate Professor at CUT and currently Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada Elizabeth Papathanassoglou.
The research was conducted at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Limassol Hospital by Stelios Iordanou in collaboration with the medical, nursing and other staff of the ICU and the Deputy Director Lakis Palazis, and concerned a new intervention, which consists of placing the vascular catheter from nurse using an ultrasound device. At the same time, an integrated program for surveillance, education and prevention of infections by interventional devices was implemented in the ICU. These interventions resulted in a dramatic decrease in venous catheter bacteraemia from 15.9 to just 4.2 bacteraemia per 1,000 days of Central Venous Catheter over a one year period, a 74% reduction in the total number of bacteraemia (from 21 to just 4 cases). This reduction had a direct impact on the cost of caring for these patients but mainly on reducing their morbidity and mortality.
It is now an original and ground-breaking internationally recognized and documented good practice that will be an example for other countries as well.