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(This is the first in a series on this topic with Dr Swiner.)

When it comes to preventing infections, building a strong immune system is the most important and effective first line of defense, and nutrition plays a crucial role in that process. Infection preventionists and other infection control personnel should understand this, not only for themselves and their families but also for their patients. While many people believe they are getting enough nutrients from their diet, the reality is that modern eating habits often fall short of delivering the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need to perform optimally. That’s where strategic supplementation can make a significant difference.

In a conversation with C. Nicole Swiner, MD, author of 

The Healthy Kidney Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Manage Hypertension, Control Stress, and Prevent Renal Failure, Kidney Disease, and More

How to Avoid the Superwoman Complex: 12 Ways to Balance Mind, Body & Spirit

) examined what vitamins help with preventing or mitigating infections.

“We saw a lot of data, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, on increasing your vitamin D intake because not only does it help improve your bone density, energy levels, and mood, but it also helps your body have the energy to keep going,” Swiner, who is also a medical adviser and spokesperson for 

. “It can also help decrease cortisol levels, as well as the extra adrenaline, which is good when you want to get up and go, fight, or flight. However, elevated adrenaline isn't so good for stress levels. So, the better you can keep your cortisol and stress levels by including all the good nutrients and vitamins in your diet, the less likely you are to get sick.”

Vitamins like A, C, D, and E, along with minerals such as zinc, are powerhouses for immune support. These nutrients help regulate inflammation, strengthen cell membranes, and boost the activity of white blood cells that fight off bacteria and viruses. Vitamin D, in particular, has emerged as a key player in both immunity and overall health. Known for its role in bone strength and mood regulation, vitamin D also activates the body’s immune responses, especially those tied to respiratory health.

Swiner explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic, research showed that individuals with adequate vitamin D levels had stronger immune resilience, faster recovery, and lower inflammation levels. It was not just about reducing risk; it was about reducing severity and duration when illness did occur. Vitamin D also plays a part in lowering stress-related hormones like cortisol, which, when elevated, can suppress the immune system and increase vulnerability to infection.

However, the benefits of vitamins extend beyond simply avoiding colds and influenza. Regular intake of immune-supporting nutrients helps regulate stress, stabilize energy, and keep our internal defense systems ready. This is especially important during seasonal illness spikes or in high-stress environments, such as health care facilities, schools, or crowded urban areas.

While a balanced diet is the foundation, as Swiner said, supplementation ensures you do not leave your immune system exposed.

Podcasts

Infection prevention starts long before exposure; it begins with what we put into our bodies. This article series explores how key vitamins and nutrients like D, C, zinc, and more can strengthen immune defenses, reduce respiratory illness severity, and empower infection preventionists with evidence-based strategies to support overall health from the inside out.

Fuel Immunity First: How to Use Nutrition to Stay Ahead of Infection

Preventing sharps injuries in health care requires safety-engineered devices and a cultural shift, supported by clear policies, transparency, and communication across departments. One expert emphasizes that the responsibility for preventing sharps injuries does not begin and end in the operating room (OR), but instead it extends to sterile processing, pathology, and beyond.

) interview with Amanda Heitman, BSN, RN, CNOR, perioperative educational consultant for Periop Anew, and supervisor of education of surgical services at WakeMed in Cary, North Carolina, she explains how to encourage sharps safety responsibility.

Key strategies for improving safety include establishing robust administrative controls, promoting consistent incident reporting, and transparently reviewing injuries to learn from them rather than hiding them. When staff feel safe reporting an injury and see others do the same without fear of blame, it helps normalize the process and build a culture where safety is the expectation, not the exception.

“We have to help write policies for the sharp safety to ensure that adherence is going to happen with their practices because again, if you don't implement the policies, they may not do it,” Heitman told 

. “We got to encourage the reporting still, and then start investigating those reports, figuring out what happened, what process needs to be reevaluated, to see why the injury occurred, and being transparent about those incident reports, to look at the issues that is so useful and helpful, and learning from those issues rather than hiding them.”

Equally important is reevaluating practices and policies after an injury occurs. Investigating the root cause and adjusting workflows or retraining staff can prevent repeat incidents. This also means involving staff in the evaluation and adoption of safety-engineered devices, empowering them to be champions of safer practices.

Sharps safety must also include better coordination between the OR and sterile processing departments (SPD). If a used scalpel blade is not removed properly before being sent for cleaning, the risk of injury transfers downstream. In fast-paced environments where staff may be relieved midcase, that crucial step is sometimes skipped, which puts SPD personnel at risk. Proper use of blade removal devices at the field level can bridge this safety gap between teams.

Pathology departments also face exposure risks when using similar tools. This is why safety measures must be adopted facility-wide, not only in surgical areas.

Ultimately, building a culture of safety involves listening to staff, sharing accountability, and valuing every contribution. Whether it is implementing better tools or simply reporting an incident, each action helps make health care safer for patients and the people who care for them.

Sharps safety isn’t just an operating room issue—it’s a system-wide concern that demands stronger policies, consistent reporting, and cross-departmental collaboration to truly protect health care workers.

Building a Culture of Sharps Safety Requires More Than Just Tools

Despite being a well-known occupational hazard, sharps injuries continue to occur in health care facilities and are often underreported, underestimated, and inadequately addressed. A recent interview with sharps safety advocate Amanda Heitman, BSN, RN, CNOR, a perioperative educational consultant, reveals why change is overdue and what new tools and guidance can help.

Reducing Hidden Risks: Why Sharps Injuries Still Go Unreported

Discover how reducing hand hygiene observations from 200 to 50 per unit monthly can optimize infection preventionists' time, enhance safety culture, and improve patient outcomes.

Revolutionizing Infection Prevention: How Fewer Hand Hygiene Observations Can Boost Patient Safety

According to new research, genomic surveillance is transforming health care-associated infection detection by identifying outbreaks earlier, enabling faster interventions, improving patient outcomes, and reducing costs.

Genomic Surveillance A New Frontier in Health  Care Outbreak Detection

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending July 20, 2024.


Weekly Rounds: Antimicrobial Resistant Gonorrhea, CDC Speaks to ICT, and More

A study at the 2024 APIC conference observed MRSA and Pseudomonas contamination in a new children's outpatient pulmonary clinic during construction and after patient use, highlighting significant infection risks.

Tracking Pathogen Contamination in a New Children’s Outpatient Pulmonary Clinic

Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens of clinical importance in health care facilities today. Each column explores the Bug of the Month's etiology, the infections it can cause, the modes of transmission, and ways to fight its spread. 

Bug of the Month: I Like to Hitch a Ride

 helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens of clinical importance in health care facilities today. Each column explores the 

's etiology, the infections it can cause, the modes of transmission, and ways to fight its spread. The pathogen profiles will span bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic species. We encourage you to use 

 as a teaching tool to help educate health care personnel and start a dialogue about microbiology-related imperatives.

 While you were outside enjoying a warm summer evening, a pesky little mosquito seemed to have found just the right spot of uncovered, exposed skin to lay a bite on you. You didn’t know this, but I rode silently, tucked away in the saliva of that darling mosquito. I prefer to hitch a ride with my close companions, 

. They are the perfect winged chauffeurs for my journey. They were looking for a delicious snack, but I had other ruinous plans.

While you itched and itched that mosquito’s bite for the next few days, I began knocking and knocking on various doors in your body. I told your body, “Make more of me,” and before long, I had built an impressive army. At first, no one had noticed me, but after my army was majestically built, your immune system detected me and my soldiers. The temperature in your body began to rise slowly at first, then rapidly. Your skin began to grow hot, and still I had more plans for you.

Soon, your joints began to ache with a deep, throbbing pain. Swelling followed, stiff and unrelenting. Your wrists, ankles, and knees felt like they were on fire. It troubled you to stand or even to grab a glass of water. I bring the kind of crippling pain that makes people walk hunched over, and those who first encountered me named me to mean “that which bends up” in the Makonde language.

Over the next few days, waves of muscle pain rolled through you. Nausea crept in without warning, leaving your stomach uneasy and your appetite gone. Pounding headaches pulsed behind your eyes like a relentless drumbeat, making it hard to think or even rest. A fatigue came for you that wrapped you like a heavy blanket, refusing to let go.

After days of misery, you finally mustered the strength to get up and drag yourself to the doctor. Every step felt like wading through wet cement with your stiff, screaming joints. You explained to them your fever, burning joints, and crushing fatigue, but even they looked uncertain. I am tricky that way. My symptoms can mimic other illnesses like Dengue and Zika, without specialized testing.

Once they checked your vitals and ran those labs, you waited, aching and hoping for answers. At last, the test results came back, unmasking me as the culprit of your ailments. The doctor could not get rid of me directly, but they worked to ease the pain and slowly dwindle the suffering I had caused.

You are just one of over 100,000 cases of me each year. I have been identified in over 110 countries, but I was first discovered in Tanzania in 1952.

Check out the author reading the article and identify which bug is speaking in this installment of the 

The Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens that are clinically important in today's health care facilities. Check out the author reading the article and identify which bug is speaking in this installment.  

Infection prevention is too often the first program cut when budgets tighten—but experts warn that underfunding leaves hospitals vulnerable. Stronger policies, bigger rewards, and robust vaccination programs are critical to protecting patients and communities.

Invest in Prevention Now: Funding and Vaccination Are Keys to Safer Hospitals

®) interview with authors of a recent study titled “Quantifying the progressing landscape of infection preventionists: A survey-based analysis of workload and resource needs,” the authors discuss funding and how vaccination can be part of the solution.

The authors are Brenna Doran, PhD, MA, who specializes in hospital epidemiology and infection prevention at the University of California, San Francisco, and is a coach and consultant in infection prevention; Jessica Swain, MBA, MLT, director of infection prevention and control at Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, New Hampshire; and Shanina Knighton, PhD, RN, CIC, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing and senior nurse scientist at MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.

Financial constraints remain one of the most significant barriers to adequate infection prevention (IP) staffing, according to infection preventionists who stress the need for stronger policy and funding support. Knighton urged, “Hospitals should work with state and national leaders to change policies that fund infection prevention programs. It’s one of the things that’s always on the chopping block first, which is unfortunate—not just for infection prevention, but for public health in general.”

Current federal reimbursement models do little to incentivize investment. “Medicare and Medicaid already reward hospitals for keeping infection rates low, but we should be pushing for bigger rewards so we can invest more into infection prevention teams,” Knighton noted. Conversely, hospitals with high infection rates lose funding—evidence, they argue, that IPs help protect both patients and a hospital’s bottom line.

But success in infection prevention is often invisible. “Our success is tied to the reduction of HAIs, but that’s maybe only 25 to 30% of what we do. When you have a strong IP program, you almost don’t know we exist,” Doran said. “How do you quantify the savings of not having an outbreak?”

Participants also called for expanded grants and emergency funding. “We just don’t have enough public health emergency funds… whether we’re talking about natural disasters, pandemics, or outbreaks like measles or [tuberculosis],” Knighton said. “We need to strengthen programs long-term instead of always playing catch-up.”

Vaccination programs were highlighted as essential tools. IPs are doing their best to ensure patients understand how vital vaccination is. “We, as infection preventionists, are really trying to make sure that we are able to confidently and articulately tell that story about how serious the implications can be if we are not doing the things that we can be doing to prevent these preventable diseases.”

Doran said, “We get vaccinated for everybody that we could potentially come in contact with, who could fall, who could become infected with these diseases because they can't get vaccinated.”

For hospitals, investing in infection prevention is not just compliance; it is a matter of saving lives and sustaining trust.

This is the fifth installment of this interview. The first can be found 

Doran B, Swain J, Knighton S. Quantifying the progressing landscape of infection preventionists: A survey-based analysis of workload and resource needs. 

. 2025;53(6):669-677. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2025.03.012

Infection prevention is too often the first program cut when budgets tighten, but experts warn that underfunding leaves hospitals vulnerable. Stronger policies, bigger rewards, and robust vaccination programs are critical to protecting patients and communities.

Video Series

Geography plays a decisive role in how hospitals staff their infection prevention and control (IPC) departments, with research showing sharp differences between urban, rural, and regionally regulated facilities.

Regional Disparities Shape Infection Prevention Staffing

), study authors shared their insights on how regional disparities exist in infection prevention staffing and discussed strategies to address these differences.

“It’s known historically, and the literature supports it, that urban hospitals have more resources compared to rural ones,” Swain explained. Hospitals in high-volume areas or those facing unique health challenges often require larger IP [infection preventionist] teams. But many rural facilities struggle to meet these demands.

To close these gaps, experts suggest creative solutions. 

Thinking through strategies like, how do you use telehealth to be able to support, what regional collaborations can take place, and how do we make sure targeted funding is implemented in those areas in order to be able to address what those staffing needs may be

Hospital size and satellite facilities also impact workload. “Our academic medical center, for instance, has a number of off-site ambulatory spaces that our IPs have to cover… that does increase the amount of area that the IPs have to cover, and the knowledge that they have to have in order to cover those areas,” Swain said.

Regional regulatory pressures further complicate staffing. Doran, a California-based IP, noted, “California… has the most regulatory requirements. For example, all healthcare buildings have to be earthquake compliant by 2030. It’s generally less expensive to build an entirely new hospital than renovate, so those of us in California are pretty much universally involved in a lot of construction and design.”

Whether preparing for earthquakes in California or hurricanes in the South, hospitals must adapt IP staffing models to their unique regional risks because infection prevention cannot be one-size-fits-all.

This is the fourth installment of this interview. The first can be found 

Infection prevention isn’t one-size-fits-all. Regional disparities, from rural staffing shortages to California’s strict regulations, demand tailored strategies, stronger collaborations, and targeted funding to protect patients everywhere.

From Earthquakes to Rural Shortages: How Geography Shapes Infection Prevention

Fewer than 14% of infection prevention departments receive staffing support from other hospital units—a gap experts warn undermines collaboration, strains resources, and weakens patient safety efforts.

Breaking Down Silos: Why Infection Prevention Needs Cross-Departmental Support

Fewer than 14% of infection prevention (IP) departments receive staffing support from other hospital departments, a startling figure that underscores the need for stronger integration across health care systems. In a recent discussion among infection preventionists (IPs), several experts reflected on the implications of this resource gap and offered ideas for moving forward that they found from their recent study.

, study authors spoke on siloed operations and how infection prevention and control (IPC) should not be done in isolation. Brenna Doran PhD, MA, hospital epidemiology and infection prevention for the University of California, San Francisco, and a coach and consultant of infection prevention; Jessica Swain, MBA, MLT, director of infection prevention and control for Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, New Hampshire; and Shanina Knighton, PhD, RN, CIC, associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing and senior nurse scientist at MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.

One of the strongest themes that emerged was the risk of siloed operations. “Our study highlights the fact that operations can be siloed and without collaboration, infection prevention efforts can be less effective,”

Knighton explained. The reality, she emphasized, is that infection prevention touches nearly every corner of a hospital.“It touches every department. And so, with us being able to collaborate more, I think that we can start to decrease missed opportunities as it pertains to patient safety.”

Yet collaboration alone is not enough—funding remains a pressing barrier. “There’s this minuscule budget sometimes for infection prevention and control, but it’s expected that infection prevention and control touches every aspect of the hospital,” Knighton continued. Without adequate investment, even the best cross-training and teamwork cannot fully address the scope of what IPs are tasked to accomplish.

Another critical issue is the unrealistic expectation that IPs can “wear all the hats.” As Doran said, “It’s really challenging to balance being a generalist… with also specializing. We can’t physically or logistically do both.” Areas such as data analytics, reporting, and technology integration often fall outside the natural skill sets of most IPs, yet these tasks are increasingly expected of them. The group agreed that allocating partial support from specialists—such as data analysts or IT professionals—would significantly improve infection prevention programs while allowing IPs to stay focused on their primary mission: preventing infections.

That mission, however, depends on strong relationships with other departments. IPs see themselves not as replacements for nurses, environmental services, or sterile processing professionals, but as allies who ensure safety across all workflows. “It’s not trying to be a nurse, or environmental services,” Knighton said. “It’s trying to enhance what they do best by making sure that they’re doing it safely, but being able to view things with an infection prevention and control lens.”

Embedding infection prevention principles directly into other departments emerged as a promising solution. By training and empowering champions within nursing, environmental services, and sterile processing, hospitals can ensure that IP practices are reinforced even when an IP cannot be physically present. “We cannot be at everybody’s elbow all the time,” Swain said. “So to have those embedded people to be more specialized in infection prevention, and be looking at it from that lens, is going to impact our programs and make them that much better and increase patient and staff safety.”

The takeaway is Clear: without dedicated cross-departmental support and leadership buy-in, infection preventionists will continue to face an uphill battle. However, with the right collaboration, hospitals can create safer environments for both patients and staff.

IP is not a person; it's a program, and that program truly encompasses everybody working within the confines, not just of the hospital but also our external partners. So again, we're trying to build a tribe,” Doran said.

This is the third installment of the interview. The first can be found 

Doran B, Swain J, Knighton S. Quantifying the progressing landscape of infection preventionists: A survey-based analysis of workload and resource needs. 

Fewer than 14% of infection prevention departments receive staffing support from other hospital units, leaving infection preventionists stretched thin. Experts warn that this lack of collaboration undermines patient safety and strains already limited resources.

Survey data reveal rising hours and responsibilities for infection preventionists, with staffing shortages fueling burnout risks and threatening the safety of both patients and health care workers.

Infection Preventionists Under Strain: More Work, Fewer Resources

A recent study found that infection preventionists (IPs) are working an average of 43.6 hours per week. The voices of those on the frontlines highlight what is driving this increase and what it means for patient safety.

, study authors shared how this increase affects the mental and physical health of IPs. The authors include Brenna Doran PhD, MA, hospital epidemiology and infection prevention for the University of California, San Francisco, and a coach and consultant of infection prevention; Jessica Swain, MBA, MLT, director of infection prevention and control for Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, New Hampshire; and Shanina Knighton, PhD, RN, CIC, associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing and senior nurse scientist at MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.

“We know that, like just beyond traditional infection control duties, we're now involved with emergency preparedness, antimicrobial stewardship, data analysis,” Knighton explained. “There have been enhanced regulations and reporting obligations, which have demanded us to be more meticulous, as well as it's taken up more time. And I think that, overall, in the broader nursing and health care [sector], staffing shortages have led to increased responsibilities for existing staff. Staffing levels should be more aligned with workload demands. However, because things are constantly changing, it is currently still leading to a bigger strain.”

Swain added: “As an IP, we took on more responsibilities, like some of those things, like being part of emergency management, and now there's no way for us to sort of step away from those things, and there are new regulatory requirements around special pathogens and educating the staff. We’re now more involved in a lot of other areas that we just haven't been involved in. So there's no ability to step back and work fewer hours, because there's just too much to do. The staffing hasn't really changed, and in some spaces, it's actually decreased, leaving fewer people to handle that larger bucket of work.”

The pandemic has brought about lasting changes. “There are responsibilities that we have now, kind of post-COVID, that we didn't have before,” Doran said. “During COVID-19, there was a lot of work around exposures, outbreaks, tracing, and regulatory reporting. And we're in this space now where we still deal with COVID-19 outbreaks, exposures, increased regulatory reporting, and beyond that… we've been asked to get more intricately involved in other spaces. The work itself… is significantly more than it was before COVID, except the staffing resources haven't increased. There is this universal discordance about what our institutions expect of us in our physical capacity to handle the hours and workload.”

The consequences of short staffing are serious. “For one, I would say delayed detection," Knighton said. "When we're talking about fewer IPs, it will automatically equate to slower identification and response to outbreaks, as well as higher rates of hospital-acquired infections. We're compromising patient safety just within that. We're also talking about overworked IPs, which leads to a higher risk of burnout, and it's going to impact the quality of infection prevention and control practices.”

Swain said succinctly: “We can do the bare minimum with the bare minimum staff, but it all really depends on what your hospital leadership wants their infection prevention program to accomplish. If we want to be at our best, then we must have the staff to be at our best.”

Even as hospitals emerge from the pandemic, infection prevention programs continue to feel the strain. “[Health care associated infection] rates, I think understandably, were higher during [COVID-19],” Doran said. “As we exited [the COVID-19 pandemic], there was an immediate pivot to addressing these high HAI rates. When you're working with limited staff, or you're constantly rehiring staff, or you have travelers, it's hard to get everybody on the same page and working towards a shared mission.”

The risks extend beyond patients, as the moderator said, “The one thing you also need to consider is health care workers’ safety as well, not just the patients, because it's anyone who's going to be in that space. And sometimes I think IPs forget to worry about themselves too.

As the study underscores, infection preventionists are doing more than ever before with fewer resources. “There is this universal discordance about what our institutions expect of us in our just physical capacity to do those number of hours, do that work,” Doran said. The voices of IPs themselves reveal the urgent need for staffing models that match the expanding scope of infection prevention.

This is the second installment of the interview. The first can be found 

This installment of the interview with study authors, survey data reveal rising hours and responsibilities for infection preventionists, with staffing shortages fueling burnout risks and threatening the safety of both patients and health care workers.

As hospitals turn to UVC technology to combat health care-associated infections, a new FDA mandate is changing the game—requiring formal authorization for devices that claim to reduce microbial contamination. For infection preventionists and health care leaders, understanding this regulatory shift is now essential to protecting patients and ensuring compliance.

FDA Authorization: Raising the Bar for UVC Disinfection in Health Care

The infection prevention field reached a milestone when Surfacide’s Helios Plus system became the first whole-room microbial reduction device to receive clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under 510(k). This landmark approval not only validates the technology but also elevates environmental hygiene as a vital pillar of patient safety by officially placing UVC microbial reduction devices under its regulatory authority. Surfacide founder and CEO Gunnar Lyslo joined 

 to discuss what this means for the health care industry and why it is time to separate science-backed solutions from misleading claims.

According to Lyslo, the FDA clearance marks a pivotal moment for the infection prevention community. “It establishes the critical role that health care surfaces play in patient safety,” he said, adding that no other tool in the environmental services toolkit has required FDA clearance—until now. The move underscores the seriousness with which the FDA views UVC disinfection technology. It also sends a clear message: Claims about efficacy and safety in health care environments must be backed by rigorous scientific evidence, not just marketing.

The path to FDA 510(k) clearance was neither short nor easy. UVC products were on the market for years before the FDA intervened. Initially, companies could sell UVC devices during the COVID-19 public health emergency if they held safety data on file and met criteria for low-level disinfection. Post-pandemic, however, the rules changed. All manufacturers now must submit efficacy and safety data for FDA review before selling their products.

In a unique regulatory twist, no existing category previously covered UVC whole-room disinfection systems, so the FDA required a “de novo” submission—essentially creating a new classification and predicate. Xenex's LightStrike+ was the first system to meet this new standard. Xenex achieved a de novo authorization (first to establish the classification), and Surfacide came next with its 510K.

Lyslo emphasized that this shift is more than regulatory housekeeping—it’s about protecting patients. Many UVC manufacturers continue to promote devices without FDA clearance, often using peer-reviewed studies as stand-ins for regulatory approval. But Lyslo is clear: scientific papers aren’t enough. Only FDA-reviewed data that demonstrate efficacy under worst-case conditions—specific distances, h8s, angles, and dose requirements—are valid for clearance.

This misalignment has led to confusion among health care decision-makers. Lyslo advised that any UV disinfection vendor should be asked a simple question: “Are you FDA authorized?” If they can’t provide documentation, the conversation should end.

As the FDA begins enforcing its new classification, the landscape of UVC disinfection in health care is poised to shift dramatically. “We fully expect the FDA to begin enforcement,” Lyslo said, noting that currently only 2 companies are authorized to sell UVC systems to U.S. health care institutions.

Despite the competitive advantage, Lyslo encourages other companies to follow Surfacide’s lead. “It levels the playing field,” he said. “If you’re making claims about microbial reduction, submit your data to the FDA and let them evaluate it.”

Ultimately, Lyslo believes that the FDA’s involvement is beneficial for the field. “This elevates the work we do in infection prevention,” he said. “And that benefits everyone, especially the patients we’re here to protect.”

As hospitals turn to UVC technology to combat health care-associated infections, a new FDA mandate is changing the game—requiring formal authorization for devices that claim to reduce microbial contamination. For infection preventionists and health care leaders, understanding this regulatory shift is now essential to protecting patients and ensuring compliance.


A new infection control model highlights 5 key moments for disinfecting high-touch surfaces in patient care, aiming to reduce health care–associated infections and improve patient safety.

Beyond Hand Hygiene: The Five Critical Moments for Environmental Disinfection in Health Care

(You can also listen to this interview on our 

on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts)

Infection prevention has long focused on hand hygiene, but what about the surfaces patients and health care workers touch throughout the day? Jim Gauthier, MLT, CIC, alongside coauthors Carol Calabrese, BS, RN, CIC, and Peter Teska, MBA, introduced the concept of 

Targeted Moments of Environmental Disinfection (TMED)

—a structured approach identifying 5 critical moments for cleaning high-touch surfaces in patient care areas, published in 

The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

), Gauthier discusses the importance of real-time disinfection, the hidden dangers of overlooked surfaces, and practical strategies to integrate TMED into daily health care practices, aiming to reduce health care–associated infections and enhance patient safety.

“TMED is a heuristic, risk-based model proposing additional cleaning and disinfecting within the patient zone modeled on a similar concept developed by WHO [World Health Organization] for hand hygiene,” the authors wrote. “TMED identifies and suggests when disinfection should be conducted by [health care workers], either after or before certain procedures or events that may leave organisms on high-touch surfaces, or to remove organisms that may have been deposited during other care procedures.”

: Please explain to me what your commentary covered.

A group of experts highlight their infection control model, which highlights 5 key moments for disinfecting high-touch surfaces in patient care, aiming to reduce health care–associated infections and improve patient safety.

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