Preventing Hospital-Acquired Infections

Elie Saade, MD, recent “Dinner with the Doc” honoree, leads infection control interventions with significant impact

UH Clinical Update | February 2022

Elie Saade, MD, is a recent “Dinner with the Doc” honoree for leading multidisciplinary teams focused on reducing hospital-acquired infections.

Elie Saade, MD

These include UTIs associated with urine catheters, bloodstream infections associated with central lines, and C. difficile infections; he has also been instrumental in reducing MRSA numbers at UH Cleveland Medical Center and across the UH system.

All can be disabling or fatal for patients. They also affect UH’s reputation and ratings for quality.

In the case of C. diff, for instance, Dr. Saade drove numerous initiatives that brought about its reduction, including changes to lab testing, the EMR order set design and implementing effective disinfecting products and surveillance processes for environmental cleaning.  He also has been lauded for spearheading changes that improved the process for ordering urine and blood cultures, providing more accurate results and better treatment and outcomes for patients.

Dr. Saade joined UH in 2009 for his training; since 2015 he has worked as an infectious diseases specialist. He became Medical Director of Infection Control in 2019.

“Working in Infection Prevention and Control is the most important part – the highlight – of my career, because we can affect so many people’s lives,” he says. “Usually as doctors, we can affect one person at a time.

“When it comes to infection control, we work to keep all our patients safe, and we can learn how to keep all patients safe, everywhere.”

In addition to his medical degree from Saint Joseph University School of Medicine in Beirut, Lebanon, Dr. Saade received his Master of Public Health from Case Western Reserve University in 2015.

As Dr. Saade is the first to say, his work involves many teams, including infection prevention specialists, quality nurses working with nursing administration, nurse leaders, lab directors, and environmental services. All of them work in coordination to prevent infections.

When it comes to hospital acquired infections, handwashing and hand hygiene remain crucial. “There’s nothing more important than that,” he says. “We also do a lot of other things though. For example, we have the lab tell us if a patient’s infection involves drug resistant bacteria, so we monitor this

“When there are other pathogens of concern, such as COVID-19 or TB, we isolate the patient so they don’t transmit infections to healthcare workers or other patients.”

Also, Dr Saade works with colleagues to protect patients who are at higher risk of infection – perhaps because of a suppressed immune system – or who are undergoing surgeries that put them at risk of infections such as MRSA. Surgical patients get nasal swabs that check for the presence of MRSA a couple of days before their operation and receive special products to lower their risks of having an infection.

Dr. Saade also continues to see patients for all kinds of infections – often complex cases that might involve such conditions as meningitis, pneumonia or sepsis. Employee health is also a focus for him, especially if a caregiver has been exposed to a certain infection, perhaps by a patient.

“We want to protect them as well as their patients and other caregivers to prevent other exposures,” says Dr. Saade.

He reflects on his choice of profession.

“I decided to become a doctor because I thought that nothing is more important than helping make people healthier and making their lives better,” he says. “It is easy to get discouraged nowadays as a doctor with the amount of sickness around us, but I try to remember that no one decides to go into our profession because it’s easy.

“We decide to become nurses and doctors because we want to help, and sometimes it’s harder to help. But you still have to do your best.”

To nominate a UH physician caregiver for this award, please visit the Digital Workplace. The next deadline is April 15.