Infection Control Today Magazine

Interventions

Citywide Hand Hygiene Intervention Triggers 25 Percent Drop in Community Infection Rate

An unprecedented public health initiative has demonstrated the potential of hand hygiene awareness and compliance to reduce the spread of illness and related healthcare costs in a community. The study further demonstrated the power of public-private partnerships in tackling ...More
December 13, 2010
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene
Multiple Interventions, Improved Procedures and Technology Help UNC Hospitals Reduce CLABSIs

Employing multiple interventions and armed with technology, clinicians at the University of North Carolina Hospitals worked with their hospital epidemiologists and infection preventionists and were able to reduce their rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections ...More
December 6, 2010
Posted in News
Set of Specific Interventions Rapidly Improves Hospital Safety Culture

A prescribed set of hospital-wide patient-safety programs can lead to rapid improvements in the “culture of safety” even in a large, complex, academic medical center, according to a new study by safety experts at Johns Hopkins. “It doesn’t take decades or tons of money to ...More
December 2, 2010
Posted in News
Groups Call for Adoption of HAI Elimination Framework

Several organizations representing the infection prevention and control community are pushing for the adoption of a set of interventions, or a framework, aimed to control and eradicate healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs). In a new white paper appearing in the latest issue ...More
October 11, 2010
Posted in News
Trauma Surgeon Develops Multidisciplinary Protocol to Eliminate VAP

Critically ill patients on a breathing tube are at risk not only from their injuries or diseases, but also from infections they can contract in the hospital. One of the most common infections is pneumonia from breathing tubes. A study of a new multidisciplinary protocol ...More
October 6, 2010
Posted in News
Cleaning Intervention Cuts C. difficile Acquisition Rates by One-Third

By Kelly M. Pyrek Robert Orenstein, DO, associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Infection Prevention and Control at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has devised an environmental hygiene intervention so successful it has reduced Clostridium difficile ...More
September 7, 2010
Posted in News, Environmental Hygiene
UNC Hospitals Reduce Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections by 85 Percent

The rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections at the University of North Carolina Hospitals has been reduced by 85 percent over the last 10 years, a new study by UNC researchers finds. This in turn resulted in the prevention of an estimated 887 infections and ...More
September 2, 2010
Posted in News
Active Surveillance, Decolonization Associated With Decreased HAIs

Fraser TG, et al. (2010) note a relationship between colonization and bacteremia, so they sought to evaluate the effects of an active surveillance program for Staphylococcus aureus linked to a decolonization protocol on the incidence of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) ...More
August 16, 2010
Posted in News
Expert Asks, Can HAI-Related Interventions Be 'Right-Sized?'

A one-size-fits-all approach may not work for infection prevention and control efforts, says Kathryn B. Kirkland, MD, from the Section of Infectious Disease and International Health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. In a commentary in the August issue ...More
August 16, 2010
Posted in News
Reminding Staff to Remove Catheters Reduces Infections by Half

Researchers found the most common hospital-acquired infection is significantly reduced with simple, low-cost interventions. ...More
August 16, 2010
Posted in News