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If you are reading this, you value infection prevention and control. This article fits into that passion for one simple reason: sterile processing departments (SPDs) are pivotal to this value. The SPD critically serves surgical patients with instrument and other durable equipment for patients throughout the hospital.

Persistence is the cornerstone of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention program at Nash Health Care. Through our multidisciplinary approach, we focused intensely on hand hygiene, contact precautions and environmental cleaning. We also felt that if we focused on MRSA, which causes high-profile healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), these control measures would also have an impact on other multi-drug resistant organisms as well. Mirror clings, signs and screen savers highlighting hand hygiene were used as reminders to staff and physicians. As a result of our efforts, Nash Health Care has been recognized for an Excellence in MRSA Reduction Award by VHA Inc., the national healthcare network, for progress in addressing this serious patient safety issue and in recognition of an 84 percent reduction in MRSA infections. In fact, Nash Health Care achieved nine consecutive months without a nosocomial MRSA infection.

Infection preventionists face a challenging and often times daunting task meeting the day-to-day regulatory requirements for public reporting of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified hand hygiene as the single most important intervention to reduce the transmission of infection.