Mary E. Reilly, MHA, BSN, RN, HACP, CIC, is an infection prevention system manager with 25 years of experience in infection control and is certified as an Infection Control (CIC) practitioner. Currently, Reilly focuses on mentoring and optimizing infection prevention across multiple hospital settings, standardizing infection prevention activities across a multihospital and outpatient clinic system to ensure strong protocols and alignment with organizational goals.
There’s a bat in the hospital. Now what? Before anyone swats it, grabs it, or throws it away, infection prevention needs staff to understand one thing: That bat may be critical evidence in determining whether patients and employees need rabies PEP. One bat. One bad decision. A potentially enormous exposure investigation.
Infection preventionists face a daily battle against unseen threats, yet the hardest struggle is often the fear of speaking up. When you spot a dangerous gap in practice, do you act or stay silent to avoid conflict. Real safety begins when IPs are empowered to stop the line without fear or hesitation.
