Weekly Rounds: Digital Wristbands for Hand Hygiene Compliance, Innovative Gowns, and More
Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending June 17.
Here are 5 highlights from ICT®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.
Digital Wristband Provides a Fuller Picture of Hand Hygiene Compliance in an Intensive Care Unit
The wearable wristband works with location sensors throughout the hospital to track HH and HCW behavior, and then pairs with an app that analyzes individual performance.
Innovative Gowns Fill Wishlist of Sustainability, Style, Design
Collaboration of a team from Inova Health with La Forma Medical developed an isolation gown that was cooler, better fitting, and more environmentally-friendly than disposables.
IPC Practices Demonstrate Higher Hand Hygiene Rates in Skilled Nursing Facility
The encouraging method used in the facility to raise the percentages was the answer to creating a positive response from the team.
Barriers to Hand Hygiene Include Availability of Products, Lack of Feedback
Health care worker hand hygiene compliance ticked up during COVID, but levels remain low nationwide. A 3-hospital network in Illinois wanted to know why.
How Wound Classification Impacts Surgical Site Infection Rate
“Of all the SSIs we culled over that 3 years, about 42% of them required a wound class change by an infection preventionist,” Emily Grohs, MPH, CIC, tells ICT®.
Beyond the Surface: Rethinking Environmental Hygiene Validation at Exchange25
June 30th 2025Environmental hygiene is about more than just shiny surfaces. At Exchange25, infection prevention experts urged the field to look deeper, rethink blame, and validate cleaning efforts across the entire care environment, not just EVS tasks.
A Controversial Reboot: New Vaccine Panel Faces Scrutiny, Support, and Sharp Divides
June 26th 2025As the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under sweeping changes by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the national spotlight turned to the panel’s legitimacy, vaccine guidance, and whether science or ideology would steer public health policy in a polarized era.
Getting Down and Dirty With PPE: Presentations at HSPA by Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski
June 26th 2025In the heart of the hospital, decontamination technicians tackle one of health care’s dirtiest—and most vital—jobs. At HSPA 2025, 6 packed workshops led by experts Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski spotlighted the crucial, often-overlooked art of PPE removal. The message was clear: proper doffing saves lives, starting with your own.
