The Infection Control Today® prevention page contains news and information on the latest updates on all facets of infection prevention. From vaccinations and immunizations to controlling air and water flow in a health care system, preventing infections falls not only on the infection prevention staff, but on all who interact within the hospital, from environmental services teams to those planning and building new construction.
February 10th 2025
Burnout among infection preventionists is a growing crisis exacerbated by the pandemic. This personal reflection highlights the emotional toll, systemic challenges, and urgent need for support.
Troubled Water Makes for Sick Hospitals
October 18th 2021Brian Flannigan: “The reason why water quality and water safety is so important in sterile processing is that there have been direct connections made between the water systems and hospital infections: operating room infections, asset life problems, maintenance problems, staining and discoloration of equipment.”
Why COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Are Necessary
October 18th 2021Anthony Harris, MD, MBA, MPH: “We know that mandates such [as the COVID-19 vaccine mandate] don’t exist in isolation. For any school age child that wants to attend public school, guess what? Be vaccinated. Likewise for universities, in many cases. If you’re living in a dormitory scenario. This is not a far cry from precedent that’s already been set.”
How Hospital Administrators Can Help IPs Manage HAIs
October 15th 2021If we want to see sustained improvements in our hospitals, administrators must step in and visibly show their support of IPs while investing their time, resources, and hospital funding to increase the capacity of the IPC department.
As HAIs Rise, New Methods of Counterattack Sought
October 14th 2021Even the most rigorous infection prevention protocols come unraveled if compliance isn’t maintained. The challenge is that for busy health care professionals, remembering when and how to disinfect is just one of many competing tasks in an extremely busy day.
Even in Shadow of COVID-19, Influenza Poses Pandemic Threat
October 12th 2021The ability of any infectious agent to maintain constant transmission enables it to be an ongoing threat to public health. Few pathogens have achieved greater success at ongoing transmission potential than the influenza virus.
Encourage Pregnant Women to Get COVID-19 Vaccine
October 1st 2021While 55.9% of Americans are fully vaccinated and 64% of Americans have received at least 1 dose of a vaccine, only 31% of pregnant individuals have been fully vaccinated. The CDC urges health care providers to convince pregnant women to get vaccinated.
How to Improve Nursing Home Antibiotic Stewardship Programs
September 29th 2021The CDC’s Katryna Gouin, MPH: “…[I]deally tracking antibiotic use at the facility level should be automated using either electronic health records or long-term care pharmacy dispensing data because manual tracking of antibiotics is time intensive.”
Compassion Fatigue? Talk About It
September 24th 2021Rebecca Leach, MPH, BSN, RN, CIC: “[Compassion fatigue is] a hard topic for us because we’re not used to talking about this kind of thing in infection prevention. We’re very much focused on evidence-based care and standards. And so, this delves into a little bit of dealing with our emotions, right? And in health care, we don’t talk about that kind of thing.”