Workstations on Wheels: Contamination Patterns Show Arm Used for Moving Carries Highest Bioburden
June 14th 2022The bioburden disparities among the various locations sampled could mean HCWs are not practicing proper hand hygiene before using or moving WOWs. It could also reflect the number of touches or a discrepancy in cleaning methods.
Mobile App Significantly Boosts Hand Hygiene Observation Collection, Streamlines Process
June 13th 2022Trained observers at a pediatric hospital in south Texas relied on the app for hand hygiene observation collections between June 18 and November 30, 2021, and logged a 140% increase in observations collected.
How IPs Can Better Monitor Sterilization, Disinfection
November 4th 2021Crystal Heishman, MBA, MSN, RN, ONC, CIC: “You don’t ever want to go into a sterilization department and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong’. Because they’re the subject matter experts. You want to learn. You want to learn the process. You want to work together because it makes a stronger partnership.”
When Exhausted Infection Preventionists Saved the Day
June 30th 2021Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC: “I think there are many heroes to celebrate, but specifically, because we’re talking about infection preventionists, I want to highlight the work that they have done, and the positions that they had to manage and the flexibility and the agility that they had to exhibit during the pandemic.”
Short on Infection Preventionists? Call Some Out of Retirement
June 28th 2021Holly Taylor, MPH, CIC: Using retired IPs can “create a little bit more bandwidth within the department when you have potentially prolonged vacancies because we do know that IP staffing vacancies last longer than other health care vacancies.”
Even As COVID-19 Ebbs, Nursing Homes Struggle
June 28th 2021Karen Jones MPH, RN, CIC: “It’s really key to have a good written infection prevention and control plan at the hospital level but then also at the nursing home level. And what keeps that up to date? It’s an infection preventionist who’s knowledgeable, who’s been educated, who’s been trained, who’s certified.”
COVID-19 Mitigation Efforts Helped Stonewall C. Diff at Hospital
June 28th 2021Barbara Smith, RN, BSN, MPA, CIC: “I think that we need to do a little bit more with the public in terms of antibiotic use in the community. So that they’re not at risk for C. diff for whatever reason later in their life.”