Patient Bathing Video from the ABATE Infection Project

Patient Bathing Video from the ABATE Infection Project

The Active Bathing to Eliminate (ABATE) Infection trial (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT02063867) is a large-scale, cluster-randomized pragmatic clinical trial (PCT) designed to assess a bathing approach for reducing multidrug-resistant organisms and hospital-associated infections (HAIs) in patients hospitalized in non-critical care units. Patients were bathed either according to the hospital unit’s usual care procedures (the control group) or bathed with a topical antiseptic agent containing chlorhexidine (CHG; the intervention group). Patients in the intervention group could shower using liquid CHG soap and a mesh sponge, or have a self-assisted or nurse-assisted bed bath using the CHG cloths. If a patient in the intervention group was colonized with, infected with, or had a recent history of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the antibiotic mupirocin was additionally administered nasally for 5 days.

Because the trial was conducted in nearly 200 non-critical care hospital units across the United States, the ABATE study team developed a training video to teach nurses and nursing assistants how to approach patients to administer a CHG cloth bed bath, or help patients take a shower using the liquid CHG soap. The video also covers frequently asked questions.

The investigators hypothesize that this regimen will reduce the burden of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in these units and translate to a reduction in overall bloodstream and urinary tract infections. They will also evaluate its ability to reduce antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria and Clostridium difficile. If the results demonstrate a reduction in unit-attributable infections or MDRO burden for the intervention units, this video could be used to train nurses and staff to implement CHG bathing in healthcare systems around the nation.

The ABATE Infection Trial has been conducted in hospitals in the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) health system and is an NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory UH3 NIH Collaboratory Trial supported by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Common Fund at the National Institutes of Health. This video was created and scripted for the trial by study investigators and filmed by Sage Products, LLC.

Watch the training video here.

Citation:

Patient Bathing Video from the ABATE Infection Project: Patient Bathing Video from the ABATE Infection Project. In: Rethinking Clinical Trials: A Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Bethesda, MD: NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory. Available at: https://rethinkingclinicaltrials.org/patient-bathing-video-from-the-abate-infection-project/. Updated January 12, 2024.