St. Joseph Women’s Center continues its quest to offer award winning care to mothers and babies in Houston from labor and delivery to our tinniest patients. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) recently celebrated a significant milestone: being free of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) for 10 years. Preventing CLABSIs minimizes complications and allows babies to go home sooner to their families.

“Preventing CLABSIs minimizes complications and allows babies to go home sooner to their families,” said Nikki Devillier, NICU Nurse Manager for St. Joseph Medical Center. “What our staff has achieved – no CLABSIs for a decade – is quite amazing, considering the compromised immunities of newborns. We are extremely proud of this achievement.” 

More than a dozen years ago, the NICU began integrating several best practices into their patient care to limit the number of CLABSIs, and their hard work had paid off. Over the past few years, both the nursing and the medical team have focused on educating the staff on what causes CLABSIs, the importance of hand hygiene in the prevention of CLABSIs and implementing several other measures to protect this fragile patient population. 

Congratulations to the dedicated team for this outstanding achievement!