Infection Control Practitioner

Q & A

Recent Q&A

When's the Best Time for an ICP to Make Rounds?

Q: We are having a discussion here at the UniversityHospital and I was wanting your opinion. When is the best time for the infection control practitioner to do infection control rounds?Should it be at the beginning of the day before the first surgery begins?Should it be at the end of the day cleaning (meaning all ORs are terminally cleaned) or in the middle of the day, while surgery is going on? I would appreciate your response very much. -- Michael E Fredrick, FloridaA: I don't think it matters ...

Meaningful Data Collection

Question: As a critical access hospital with fewer than 25 beds and an average census of 10 patients per day, our numbers are obviously much smaller than most facilities. We are attempting to determine if our infection control data should be presented on the basis of 100 or 1,000 patients. At this time I list both options in my reports. – GJ, IndianaAnswer: We all have questions about the best way in which to collect and report our data in order to make it meaningful.I would recommend consulting ...

A Query About Culturing

Question: When and/or if all new admissions are cultured, will treatment be rendered on all >(+) cultures? What method is utilized to differentiate between an actual infection vs. colonization? Is this cost effective? -- Ms. T, New York City   Answer: Thank you for your question.  I'm assuming you are referring to the practice of culturing patients for resistant organisms, such as MRSA and VRE, in order to identify the reservoir of colonized or infected patients and to ...

Should Surveillance Cultures be Done on All New Admissions?

Question: Since HAIs are going to be a reportable for all states fairly soon in the future, is it prudent for healthcare facilities to do surveillance cultures on all new admits to identify colonized patients? – LC, Atlanta   Answer: Individual states have looked at laws concerning mandatory reporting of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). For instance, in my own state, South Carolina, a law was recently passed which included the following for mandatory reporting:  ...