Development of the SMART Toolkit: An online collection of management resources for health care-associated infection prevention

Laura J Rush; Sarah R MacEwan; Courtney Hebert; Lindsey N Sova; Alice A Gaughan; Tyler Griesenbrock; Timothy R Huerta; Ann Scheck McAlearney

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2025.06.001

Development of the SMART Toolkit: An online collection of management resources for health care-associated infection prevention

Am J Infect Control. 2025 Jun 5:S0196-6553(25)00410-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2025.06.001. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Laura J Rush¹, Sarah R MacEwan², Courtney Hebert³, Lindsey N Sova¹, Alice A Gaughan¹, Tyler Griesenbrock¹, Timothy R Huerta⁴, Ann Scheck McAlearney⁵

Affiliations

¹ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
² The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
³ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
⁴ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
⁵ The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH. Electronic address: Ann.McAlearney@osumc.edu.

PMID: 40482718
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2025.06.001

Abstract

We previously reported results of an in-depth study of management practices to prevent health care-associated infections. Here we describe the development of an online toolkit containing resources that can be used to implement 6 of these key management practices. Resources include practical examples, quotations describing the importance of the practice, facilitator guides and presentation slides for conducting informational sessions, assessment tools, communication templates, and simulation activities. This paper describes the development of the online toolkit, which is available at https://smart.osu.edu/.

Keywords: Catheter-associated urinary tract infection; Central line-associated bloodstream infection; Infection control management practices; Online toolkit; Patient safety.