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In today's ever-changing healthcare environment, patients demand more advanced procedures and equipment that take the pain and recovery time out of surgery. While they seek these advancements, they have forget how complicated it is to clean, inspect and test this advanced equipment. However, navigating a path through our consumer marketplace, we cannot go for a drive without seeing billboards advertising the latest and greatest robotic 3D surgery. The consumer demand for more advanced surgery has transitioned into an expectation.

Each year, approximately 5 percent to 20 percent of Americans get infected with the influenza virus. With more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year for flu-related complications, it is a wonder that less than 50 percent of eligible citizens take preventive action by getting a flu shot (CDC, 2011b). Vaccination rates have been shown to vary greatly between age groups and demographics, but one particularly interesting cohort to examine is that of healthcare workers.

Ensuring healthcare worker compliance with the proper use of respiratory protection when it is warranted remains a challenge for infection preventionists and is a continued area of study by researchers in the public and private sectors. One such agency pursuing this knowledge is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal agency specifically dedicated to generating new knowledge in the field of occupational safety and health and to transferring that knowledge into practice.

In this dynamic healthcare environment in which infection prevention and quality of care are central issues, we have an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our progress toward the elimination of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).