Environmental Services

A new pitfall trap designed to capture bed bugs is more effective than those currently on the market, according to the authors of an article appearing in the next issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology. The authors also found that traps baited with an experimental chemical lure mixture caught 2.2 times as many bed bugs as traps without the lure. Their findings suggest that an effective and affordable bed bug monitor can be made incorporating the new pitfall trap design, a chemical lure, and a sugar-and-yeast mixture to produce carbon dioxide, which is also known to attract bed bugs.

The CDC, in collaboration with the Dialysis Bloodstream Infection Prevention Collaborative, has recently developed several new tools to prevent bloodstream infections among outpatient hemodialysis patients. Most recently, a new checklist tool for Dialysis Station Routine Disinfection was developed and piloted at St. Albans satellite clinic affiliated with Fletcher Allen Healthcare in Vermont. Today, on CDCs Safe Healthcare blog, Peggy Bushey, nurse manager for renal services at Fletcher Allen Healthcare, describes the impact of this new checklist on the St. Albans clinic. She reports several positive outcomes associated with waiting for the patient to leave the station before beginning routine disinfection.  In a separate post on CDCs Safe Healthcare blog, Dr. Priti Patel, medical officer and lead of CDCs Dialysis Safety efforts, describes how elements of routine disinfection of the dialysis station are basic patient safety expectations. The new Dialysis Station Routine Disinfection checklist tool and accompanying Notes for Clinical Managers may be found in the Prevention Tools section of CDCs Dialysis Safety website. Join the conversation on CDCs Safe Healthcare blog: http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare

Loyola University Health System is the first academic medical center in Illinois to take disinfection to futuristic levels. Nicknamed Ralph by the housekeeping staff at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital and little Joe at Loyola University Medical Center, 3-foot upright cylindrical robots provide the finishing touches to room sanitation. A rotating telescopic head emits germicidal ultraviolet (UV) rays for 15 minutes in closed, unoccupied rooms to systematically kill germs.

Infection Control Today invited manufacturers of automated hand hygiene monitoring systems to provide information that will assist infection preventionists in evaluating and purchasing these technologies.