Basic techniques like hand-washing save "100s of [childrens'] lives" in recent study

Medpage Today published the results of a recent study by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions.  It looked at data from the first 29 hospital ICUs to adopt guidelines developed by Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan for management of central lines and catheters.  The basic "maintenance bundle" of guidelines emphasizes hand-washing, timely replacement of dressings and devices and use of pre-packaged supplies.  Pediatric-ICU central line-associated blood streat infections were reduced by 56%, from a rate of 5.2 per 1,000 patient-days to a rate of 2.3.  Savings kids' lives by attention to sterility:  maybe our practices have been more barbaric than we suspected.