When faced with a possible infection risk from Legionella colonization within a hospital water system, many health care systems take broad, buildingwide actions to stop the risk before it spreads, and they will continue to repeat those same actions without understanding the root cause. Common recommendations are to periodically add chlorine disinfectant (either low-level or...Read More
Over the past 10 years, the U.S. has made meaningful improvements in preventing health care-associated infections (HAIs), yet infections remain a major cause of death and disability. In addition to being incredibly dangerous to patients, HAIs also are costly because hospitals are generally not reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for treating...Read More
Preventing hospital acquired infections remains an ongoing battle for many healthcare infection prevention and facilities management teams. Fortunately, new tools and strategies continue to emerge to help experts address potential infection risks. One such tool is an air tracing study, which identifies the pathways that infectious organisms can travel from their source to a compromised...Read More
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) notes that surgical site infections carry an estimated cost of $3.3 billion each year and are associated with nearly 1 million additional annual inpatient days. Bacteria is by far the most common contributor to surgical site infections, and as a result much surgical site infection surveillance has...Read More
The problem of Legionella bacteria growth in complex water systems has been known for decades, but recent changes to regulatory requirements have created a compliance issue for many healthcare facilities. If your hospital doesn’t currently have an effective water management program implemented with effective “control measures”, it’s time to make creating one a priority. The...Read More
The winter surge of the COVID-19 pandemic is here. This time there is no epicenter, the spread of the virus has accelerated across the United States. Some healthcare systems just this summer were able to transition from COVID-dedicated spaces back to general patient care areas. Now they are faced with converting back again to respond...Read More
Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) remain a significant source of concern for healthcare facilities of all types and sizes, and the physical environment is often a leading source of these infection-causing pathogens. Data from the CDC indicates that each year, about 1 in 25 U.S. hospital patients are diagnosed with at least one infection related to hospital...Read More
As of June 12, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that approximately 75,000 cases of COVID-19 were healthcare providers in the US. Healthcare providers are on the front lines and are at high risk of infection. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount in helping to protect them from infection. Yet, PPE...Read More
Whether chairing your hospital’s safety committee or participating as a member, many of us struggle to energize our committees and to keep momentum. The value your safety committee holds for your hospital depends upon many factors, but there are some common themes to effective safety committees. An active and effective safety committee is an integral...Read More
Healthcare-acquired infections aren’t just dangerous to patients — they can also be very costly for the facilities in question. Since procedures and processes that are high risk for infection are performed in places like operating rooms and central processing, ensuring proper pressurization and ventilation to avoid infection is a matter of life and death. The...Read More
