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1rem

 hand hygiene page examines the practice of hand hygiene, from the proper methods to adherence among hospital staff. Will greater recognition of hand hygiene’s importance in curbing the spread of infections translate into better adherence among hospital staff and the public? This page features videos that demonstrate exactly how to conduct hand hygiene properly, articles recapping peer-reviewed literature on the latest advances in monitoring and adherence, as well as the popular "Bug of the Month" feature. 

The disbanding of HICPAC has left infection prevention experts scrambling to preserve national standards and ensure continuity amid growing concern over science-driven public health policy. Connie Steed, MSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, speaks with ICT. 

In the Wake of HICPAC: How APIC is Leading the Fight to Preserve National Infection Prevention Standards

NFID 2025 Report Reveals Alarming Gaps in Hand Hygiene Practices Among US Adults

Despite their protective role, gloves are often misused in health care settings—undermining hand hygiene, risking patient safety, and worsening environmental impact. Alexandra Peters, PhD, points out that this misuse deserves urgent attention, especially today, World Hand Hygiene Day. 

Happy Hand Hygiene Day! Rethinking Glove Use for Safer, Cleaner, and More Ethical Health Care

Veterinary infection control experts Leslie Kollmann, BS, AAS, CVT, CIC, Denise Waiting, LVT, and Leslie Landis, LVT, BS, discuss challenges, zoonotic disease risks, and the importance of education, collaboration, and resource development in animal care facilities.

The Guardians of Animal Health: Who Are Veterinary Infection Preventionists?

The Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens that are clinically important in today's health care facilities.

Bug of the Month: Rising From the Rainforests

Bridging the Gap: Infection Prevention in Veterinary Medicine

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a critical part of health care, and veterinary medicine is no exception. Danielle Banks, BSc (Hons) RVN GradDipVN, is a registered veterinary nurse for Davies Veterinary Specialists, based in the north of London, England, in Hitchin Hertfordshire.

She is at the forefront of advancing IPC in animal care. With over 20 years of experience, Banks has dedicated her career to improving infection control protocols in veterinary hospitals, which traditionally lag behind human health care.

) to discuss her role and its importance, not only with animals, but with the broader One Health initiative. 

 is a relatively new field, but it is gaining traction due to the growing concerns over antimicrobial resistance and the One Health approach—recognizing the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. While hospitals and clinics in human medicine have well-established IPC protocols, veterinary practices must often adapt research and guidelines from human health care to fit their unique settings.

“My role as an IP veterinary nurse is really rare.  I'm fortunate to have this role. So, within the veterinary group, I certainly work for most clinics. Rather than having a dedicated IP nurse, we would have infection control representatives. So they're effectively, there's someone who champions IP within their clinic, and that might be a lead nurse or a clinician who has that additional responsibility on top of their existing role. They're championing hand hygiene. They will be the ones to help inspire and create that necessary positive culture around hand hygiene. They will be doing the training, the education piece, those compliance checks, and, of course, those gentle reminders, which are important."

Bank continues, "The other thing that I see certainly is that that leadership and management support, that that's right, vital, so that you know staff on the clinic floor can see leaders practicing that hand hygiene so then others follow, and it embeds IP and hand hygiene as part of patient and staff safety.”

A typical day for Banks involves staff training, policy development, environmental cleaning oversight, patient placement, and monitoring infection rates. She also works on outbreak management and collaborates with public health officials when necessary. Banks helps shape IPC strategies across multiple veterinary clinics as part of a UK-wide veterinary group, ensuring standardized best practices.

One major challenge in veterinary IPC is antimicrobial resistance. Banks emphasizes the importance of educating pet owners about responsible antibiotic use and the risks of overprescribing. She also highlights the need for improved hand hygiene adherence, an issue that parallels human health care settings.

Banks envisions a future where veterinary IPC is more structured, with dedicated training courses and professional networks similar to human healthcare. With increasing awareness and collaboration, veterinary infection control will continue to evolve, benefiting both animal and human health.

Danielle Banks, a UK-based veterinary nurse, discusses the growing importance of infection prevention in animal care, tackling antimicrobial resistance, hand hygiene, and adapting human health care protocols.

Who Are Veterinary Infection Preventionists?

Infection Control in Dentistry

Marie Fluent, DDS, dental infection control consultant and speaker at MarieFluent.com, spoke with 

) after her first presentation at the Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting held in Chicago from February 19 to 22, 2025. Her topic was titled “Infection Control Update.”

Fluent, whose dental career spans 35 years, spoke in depth on everything from hand hygiene to waterlines. She is passionate about infection control, especially in dental.

“I love the topic of infection control. It's great public health service. And unlike other topics in dentistry, it's not sexy. In other words, if you adopt a new infection control program, nobody cares. If you got a new CEREC machine, everybody would sit around who and marvel at the technology and the time savings and the chair time savings that would be incorporated in adopting that new piece of technology. But if you have a new infection control program, nobody cares, but I consider it kind of like cleaning your house. If you do clean your house, nobody cares. But if you don't clean your house, everybody notices, and everybody cares. Infection control is in that same category, and it's like a public health service and endeavor that you do out at the bottom of your heart for the goodness of the community, your patients, and the safety and protection of your dental team.”

In the often funny and always engaging presentation, Fluent emphasized vaccinations and how to discuss them with patients and health care workers. “All clinical personnel in the dental setting are at risk for exposure to disease agents and other environmental hazards,” Fluent said. “With attention to infection control CDC guidelines, risks to yourself, your patients, and other dental team members can be minimized…No [vaccines] are perfect. Think of them as “bulletproof” vests. They will not protect 100% of the time, but they do help a great deal.”

At the 2025 Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, Dr. Marie Fluent passionately discussed infection control, emphasizing hand hygiene, waterlines, and the critical role of vaccinations in dental settings.

Conference

Infection Control in Dentistry: Marie Fluent, DDS, Champions Safety and Public Health at Midwinter Meeting

Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention at Jefferson Health East Region in New Jersey

's) Editorial Board members—a diverse group of professionals dedicated to advancing infection prevention and control practices. This series highlights each member's unique expertise and contributions to the field.

From groundbreaking research to innovative strategies, these experts are at the forefront of enhancing health care safety. Join us as we learn their insights, experiences, and visions for the future, providing valuable knowledge and inspiration to elevate infection control protocols. Meet Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention for Jefferson Health—East Region, in Stratford, New Jersey.

MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention at Jefferson Health East Region in New Jersey, has built an impressive career dedicated to infection control. Her journey began early in nursing when she noticed critical gaps in basic hygiene practices. Starting as an LPN and eventually advancing to a master's degree, Hayes observed firsthand the severe consequences of infection in different healthcare settings, including dialysis and critical care, where patients faced high risks of bloodstream infections. Her experiences shaped her commitment to infection prevention and led her to specialize in this field.

“I always knew that I think I would like to be the infection control nurse because they would come to our orientations at hospitals, or come and, do you know, certain educational seminars, and I always highly valued everything they had to say, and thought that's what I would like to do someday,” Hayes said.

In 2005, Hayes officially entered the infection prevention field, working in large academic health care facilities and outpatient settings. Her roles have included overseeing infection control protocols across more than 200 facilities and collaborating on facility design and construction projects to ensure proper infection prevention measures, such as hand hygiene accessibility and airflow in surgery centers.

Today, at Jefferson Health, Hayes monitors emerging infectious threats like Candida auris, a highly resistant fungus increasingly common in health care. She emphasizes the importance of vigilant surveillance and isolation protocols, particularly for patients from high-risk environments like long-term care facilities. Another focus is the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, both in health care and agriculture, which she warns could lead to a return to pre-antibiotic days if unchecked.

Hayes also sees potential in artificial intelligence (AI) for infection prevention. She hopes AI can streamline infection surveillance, allowing infection preventionists to focus more on hands-on prevention measures. As infection control continues to evolve, Hayes calls for greater emphasis on antibiotic stewardship and AI's role in infection prevention.

“How's [AI] going to play out for the role of the infection preventionist?” Hayes said, “Hopefully, it's going to allow the opportunity to get the infection preventionist closer to the bedside, closer to the procedural areas, really being able to engage in the hand hygiene observations, [personal protective equipment] usage, all the things that we preach about, and maybe perhaps you do some audits on, but it's difficult to be there in the moment. So, it may change the role of how you carry out your infection preventionist activities.”

Meet the experts shaping infection prevention: Infection Control Today's Editorial Board members share insights, experiences, and cutting-edge strategies to enhance health care safety and quality. Meet Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT. 


Meet Infection Control Today's Editorial Advisory Board Member: Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT

 Infection Prevention in Veterinary Medicine: A Growing Field with New Challenges

Bluedot Veterinary infection prevention

 has increasingly become a focal point in the conversation about infection prevention. During an interview with 

), Andrea Thomas, DVM, PhD, MSc, BSc, director of epidemiology at BlueDot Global, and Mariana Torres Portillo, MD, infectious disease surveillance manager at BlueDot Global, highlighted how the recent COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of preventing the spread of viruses between humans and animals. The transmission of diseases, such as COVID-19 and mpox, not only among humans but also to pets and wildlife, has opened up a wider discussion about zoonotic diseases that spread between animals and people.

Thomas acknowledged that veterinarians often act as generalists, managing everything from surgery to routine checkups, all while trying to prevent the spread of infections. This tall order is why a more specialized focus on veterinary infection prevention is gaining traction. There is a growing recognition of the need to fill knowledge gaps, particularly with emerging diseases, and to create guidelines to help professionals avoid potential outbreaks.

“The current pandemic that we’re still in has brought that to light,” Thomas told 

. We had a new virus spreading between people, but it could also be passed to our pets. That alone has brought a lot of attention to the need to prevent the sharing of viruses and pathogens between animals and humans….

 That’s a tall order, and it is great to know that this is a growing field and [that there is] a growing…recognition of the need to fill those gaps and have people who are dedicated to thinking about this problem, communicating around it, and developing guidelines, because we don’t always have those—especially with emerging infectious diseases—in veterinary health care.

“It’s a lot to stay on top of. You’re already treating the patients in front of you. [Still], you also need to understand what could be coming your way that you need to prepare for. [It] is a tall order, and having professionals who are dedicated to monitoring those trends, getting ahead of them, and developing guidelines before they’re needed, hopefully, is going to be a huge benefit to the field,” Thomas continued.

For instance, zoonotic diseases account for an estimated 75% of emerging infections.

 Recent research from China has identified dozens of animal viruses that could become future public health threats.

 As Torres Portillo emphasizes, professionals dedicated to monitoring these threats and developing proactive guidelines will be essential for keeping both animals and humans safe.

“I think we should first…[improve] the air quality…. [There are] many discussions into airborne pathogens, droplets vs aerosols, that have been concealed to further prevent [pathogens]. [At the] top [of the list will]be handwashing for many pathogens, [as] that is another way of transmission.” Torres Portillo said.

Regarding recommendations for veterinary infection preventionists, the focus is on fundamental actions, such as air filtration, improved hand hygiene, and a One Health approach that integrates human, animal, and environmental health. Torres Portillo also highlighted the need to protect veterinary professionals, as they are often in direct contact with animals and their fluids, increasing their risk of exposure.

A key opportunity is a more vital collaboration between human and veterinary infection prevention teams. Learning from human health experiences can help enhance veterinary protocols, bridging gaps across both fields.

“Just like in health care, these are critical resources…. We don’t have enough of them in veterinary medicine, either.” Thomas said. “There is a shortage, and we need to protect their health. That’s absolutely critical…and I do think there are gaps. It is an area that hasn’t had as much focus as it has for human health. It’s also asking a lot for public health to take on that responsibility, too, where there may not be as much expertise. Having a dedicated veterinary infection prevention training, [having] guidelines developed, [and] building that field up would be valuable across multiple fronts.”

Both Thomas and Torres Portillo see opportunities for a stronger collaboration between human and veterinary infection prevention teams. “This whole conversation is how we’re all connected. We can’t have a separation between human and animal health, so I think it will have to be very cross-collaborative,” Thomas said.

Whitacre Martonicz T. Veterinary infection prevention: a discussion with Leslie Kollman, BS, CVT, CIC. 

. June 20, 2024. Accessed October 28, 2024. 

https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/veterinary-infection-prevention-discussion-leslie-kollmann-bs-cvt-cic

’s editorial advisory board member: David Levine, PhD, DPT, MPH, FAPTA. 

. August 21, 2024. Accessed October 28, 2024. 

https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/meet-infection-control-today-s-editorial-advisory-board-member-david-levine-phd-dpt-mph-fapta

Milbank C, Vira B. Wildmeat consumption and zoonotic spillover: contextualising disease emergence and policy responses. 

. 2022;6(5):e439-e448. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00064-X

Zhao, J, et al. Farmed fur animals harbour viruses with zoonotic spillover potential, 

Veterinary medicine's growing focus on infection prevention aims to address zoonotic disease risks, emphasizing specialized training, proactive guidelines, and collaboration between human and veterinary health teams.


 Infection Prevention in Veterinary Medicine: A Growing Field With New Challenges

A Specialist’s Perspective on Clean Hospitals: Insights from Andreea Capilna, MD, PhD

CLean Hospitals Andreea caplina

 annually on October 20 has become a month-long celebration of remembering how important environmental hygiene is for hospitals. In this insightful interview, Andreea Capilna, MD, PhD, an Infectious Diseases specialist at Regina Maria Military Hospital Brașov, Romania, shares her involvement with the Clean Hospitals initiative. Capilna discusses her journey into infection prevention and control (IPC) and how Clean Hospitals plays a crucial role in maintaining hygiene in health care facilities. She also provides a comparative analysis of infection control protocols in Romania versus other European countries, along with her thoughts on team collaboration, especially highlighting the often-overlooked role of cleaning personnel in patient care.

: How are you involved with Clean Hospitals? How did you get involved, and what is your position?

 (PhD) many years ago in Geneva [Switzerland]. I also met 

 in Geneva many years ago. They launched this initiative in 2017, I guess, when I participated in some of their meetings, I was more than honored and very curious to see the topics and discussions during these meetings. I was very impressed because they started to discuss about cleanliness and clean hospitals, which was a very basic idea, but I realized at that moment that it was one of the most important issues and topics to apply in the activity of the hospitals. And I realized at that time that [making sure we have] clean hospitals is one of the major problems, and it's one of the major challenges for us as professionals in infection prevention and control. And I'm very happy for this [initiative].

I met again, Professor Pittet and Alexandra some years after the first meeting, and I participated in the promotion of Clean Hospitals during some of the international events in this field of infection prevention and control (IPC). And I was more than honored to be part of the first train the trainers’ session in Malaysia in January this year, and after that, in Geneva, trying to highlight the importance of the good cleaning of the hospitals, and mainly the importance of training of the personnel or form the cleaning In the hospital

: You are an infectious disease doctor. What exactly do you do, and how does your work coincide with Clean Hospitals?

I'm an infectious disease doctor, but I'm also a specialist in IPC. I came to this team mainly as a person with experience and expertise in the prevention and control of infections in low—and middle-income countries. It's very important to know how to act, how to train people, and how to clean hospitals in countries where resources are not unlimited and where we have to be very cautious about the use and availability of this product.

: How are infectious disease prevention and the protocols that are used in Romania? How do they differ from other countries across Europe?

We are very much aligned to the national and the international guidelines, and we are following the European and also the American guidelines. So, in theory, we are very well prepared, and hopefully, during the last year, we will also have legislation that supports the availability and applicability of these guidelines. We still have to work a lot on compliance and on understanding the importance of applying cleaning and hygiene measures. And I think that the signs of communism, where we lived for so many years, are sometimes still among us.

: I understand. So how will you and perhaps your hospital, your facility, celebrate Clean Hospitals Day?

I just want to tell you how we celebrated last year because we tried to offer to the cleaning personnel, some presents, just showing them their importance and showing them our gratitude for their involvement in the healing process of the patients because they are together with the nurses, with the doctors, with all the health care professionals. It was a very emotional and beautiful moment because they realized they were very important to us.

This year, we are trying to do something similar, but we will evolve apart from the cleaning personnel, also the nurses because their activity is so close to the patients, and so much involved in caring and taking or curing the patients is very important for us, and we just want to highlight that we are a team that we cannot work one without the others, and it's very important to be there in the same time with a lot of responsibility and compliance in applying the good medical practices rules.

's readers and listeners about Clean Hospitals?

I would like to say that everybody's work is very important in the good functioning of the hospitals, all the personnel or the medical or the caring personnel. It's very important there, and we have to act as a team and we have to support each other because we are there to help patients and to give the best quality of medical care. And I just want to say that I realized during these last years, even if I'm a doctor in [infectious disease] and IPC, that it's very important to have Clean Hospitals and to apply all the rules regarding the air, the water, the laundry, the waste management and so on because all these small details can change dramatically the evolution and the care of the patients.

: Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Yes, I would like to add that hand hygiene and clean hospitals are 2 important initiatives, and applying the good medical practices rule, rules coming from this concept can change and can improve dramatically the outcome of our patients.

Andreea Capilna, MD, PhD, an infectious disease and infection control and prevention doctor for the Regina Maria Military Hospital in Braşov, România, highlights the importance of infection prevention and the critical role of cleaning personnel in maintaining hygiene standards in hospitals.

A Specialist’s Perspective on Clean Hospitals: Insights From Andreea Capilna, MD, PhD

Health care workers must stay vigilant against rare pathogens. Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, FAPIC, an expert in infection prevention, 

Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, Discusses How to Prepare for Rare Infectious Diseases

Because the landscape of infectious diseases is constantly evolving, health care workers (HCWs) should be aware of the possibility of rare, yet equally significant, pathogens. HCWs should be aware of the critical importance of robust infection prevention measures, including accurate diagnostics, isolation protocols, and stringent disinfection practices, in mitigating the spread of such infections.

) spoke with Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, FAPIC, assistant professor at the

University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and a member of 

Popescu discussed multidrug-resistant organisms like 

and other emerging infectious diseases not endemic or typically seen in the US, like SARS-CoV-1, Ebola, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Marburg virus, and others.

She emphasizes that infection prevention health care workers should know about these diseases, including infection preventionists, environmental hygienists, and sterile processing personnel. “The tough part is that if we only stuck to one disease, we'd be doing our staff a disservice. And even if the likelihood of the Nipah virus showing up in your hospital is extremely low, I would rather we talk about it and have plans for response because it's actually a very manageable disease. From an [infection control and prevention] perspective, we can easily put those protocols in place. Even with Ebola, it is much more complicated to handle, but we have protocols and a tiered hospital system within the universe. But we have to make sure people know about it; we have to make sure they have the resources to adequately respond and communicate it.”

 where she goes to get the latest information on rare diseases and infectious diseases in general. She said she goes to 

, “This is a free online information service about outbreaks that are reported globally,” Popescu said. She also reads 

, and the social media from those sources.

Popescu said that training teams on recognizing and handling rare diseases should be addressed at the highest level, such as for Ebola, because it requires a high level of infection control processes. “If you can train your teams and make them comfortable with those processes, comfortable with the protocols, the donning and doffing and knowing what to do, or at least where to find the resources. [Ebola] is a nice top to your level of readiness, that anything else will probably not be as burdensome because even when we look at novel respiratory pathogens like COVID-19, [which] is not the same level of PPE because Ebola is so infectious, that you have to be very, very careful, you have to have the designated donning and doffing rooms, and going in and out.”

She continued, “The PPE is very exhausting and hot. It's very time-consuming. So, I use Ebola as a gold standard for if we can do [follow those high-level processes]. And it involves so much in terms of engineering controls, cleaning, disinfection, waste management…PPE, just communication, everything, then everything else will just be either a little bit less or different in a way that [the team] will know what to do, essentially. I like using Ebola as a metric.”

Some individuals believe that just because a disease usually is only found in a foreign country, that doesn’t negate that HCWs should be prepared for any disease that shows up at their facility. “There's a sense of saying this disease isn't something we have seen in the US,” Popescu said. “But that doesn't mean we're not preparing for it is a better strategy because I don't want people to ever live in a state of fear. I also don't want us to ever be so complacent that we're not preparing ourselves.”

(Quotes have been edited for clarity. Watch the entire video for more of Popescu’s advice.)

Health care workers must stay vigilant against rare pathogens. Saskia v. Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, FAPIC, an expert in infection prevention, emphasizes the importance of robust measures and preparedness.

The Role of Hospital Beds in Clostridioides difficile Transmission: Insights from a Retrospective Study

), Lucy S. Witt, MD, the lead author, shared insights into her groundbreaking study on 

 transmission. She is an assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine, a hospital epidemiologist at Emory Johns Creek Hospital, and the newest member of 

, titled "The role of the hospital bed in hospital-onset 

, a retrospective study with mediation analysis,” published in 

Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology

, investigates the significant role hospital beds play in 

 acquisition. Witt explains the study's methodology, findings, and the crucial interaction between beds and rooms. The exclusive interview sheds light on key insights for infection prevention personnel, emphasizing the importance of addressing various touchpoints and hand hygiene in health care environments to curb 

’s listeners the title and some background, how it came about, and what the findings were.

 So myself, along with colleagues at Emory, recently published a study on 

. We were looking at whether the bed itself was important to the transmission of 

 in a hospital because it's…been shown in multiple studies that being in a hospital room where a patient had previously had 

, likely puts subsequent patients at risk for acquisition as well. But exactly what part of the hospital room was playing a role hadn't been understood.

We used available technology at the time, which tracked the beds in our hospital, and each bed had 1 mattress, so we could tell you where that bed and that mattress were at any time and could follow those beds and mattresses and see how much of a role the actual bed played, as opposed to the room played in the acquisition of hospital-onset 

We employed a more complicated biostatistical analysis called mediation and interaction analysis, where we looked at the bed playing a role and the room playing a role. How much is the interaction between the bed and the room together playing a role? And how much do they play a role individually? What we really found is that both the beds in the room play a role in putting patients at risk for hospital-onset 

, but there is an interaction between them.

If you are in both a bed that held a patient who previously had 

 and a room that held a patient that previously had 

, it's really that interaction in the bed in the room is really important to future patients’ risk.

: What is the interaction? Is it because of where it's at? Is it not? Is it because it's not being cleaned properly?

 We don't know; our study did not do swabs of bedrails, light bulbs, light switches, or patient care equipment. So, I can't say for sure, but from prior studies looking at like [adenosine triphosphate] fluorescent markers on health care workers’ hands, there's probably some healthcare worker hands transmitting spores, maybe some inadequate cleaning, as well as interactions between the surfaces themselves. If the bed hits the wall, you know, does a little bit of spore get on the wall? It's complicated and not completely figured out yet. But anyone who works in health care can kind of imagine the different routes that contaminate a bed and a room and make it [riskier] to be in a contaminated bed and room.

: What do you want infection prevention personnel to learn from your study?

 My study, in conjunction with other studies, even looking at other infectious pathogens that are hospital-based problems, I'm thinking 

 that there's so much interaction between the health care environment and the patient that health care workers participate in that patients participate in, your patients are out of bed touching things, health care workers are in the room helping their patients, and that all of those touches are potential contaminations. And I think we, as a group, and we, like the infection prevention world, have been so focused on clean-in and clean-out. These hard stops are easy to see and track and intervene on. 

It's becoming more and more obvious that we need to make sure we're focusing on all the 5 moments that the [World Health Organization] has highlighted. When we're interacting with patients, make sure that hands are being cleaned every time you go from surface to body or body to a surface, not just focusing on clean-in, clean-out, [but] focusing on cleaning our hands during all interactions with patients and surfaces in their rooms. And really understanding what is a sterile site? What's a nonsterile site, and what's an in-between site, and then what's a dirty site? And [then] making sure that we wash our hands, use hand sanitizer, use gloves, use gowns at the appropriate place in our care of patients.

: What surprised you from the results of your study?

 I was surprised at how much the interaction between the room and the bed was important. At the beginning of the study, I thought that the bed itself was going to be of the utmost importance, and that was one of the reasons this was undertaken. It was right around the time that our health care system just happened to replace all the mattresses. There had been national reports given to the [Federal Drug Administration] that there had been leakage through mattress covers of human material, so not necessarily transmission of a pathogen through a mattress. But just this concept that we all assumed that mattress covers were impermeable, and it turns out they weren't. So, it was just a lucky coincidence that we happened to have replaced these new mattresses, and this concern for mattresses, and could track them.

Because of those reports about the seepage, I said, “I wonder if beds are really the important part.” And again, a lot of our patients are bed-bound; they might be soiling in their beds. It made sense to me that, okay, the bed could be the smoking gun for the transmission of 

. I was surprised at how important the room turned out to be. It reiterated to me again that it's the other surfaces in health care interactions [that] are super important. We need to be doing a good job of cleaning our hands and protecting cross-transmission from surfaces to patients and patients to surfaces.

A study led by Lucy S. Witt, MD, investigates hospital bed's role in C difficile transmission, emphasizing room interactions and infection prevention.

Hand Hygiene

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