The COVID pandemic demonstrated the essential role that ventilation and filtration can play in airborne pathogen mitigation and ensuring healthy indoor environments. Guidance on the appropriate levels of ventilation and filtration were generally established in the early days of the pandemic and were based on flushing rates required to reduce indoor airborne particle levels. In...Read More
Preventing Infection From Unexpected Sources Happens With Clear Communication Healthcare facilities have made huge strides in improving infection prevention and control, yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that, on any given day, one in 31 hospital patients may acquire a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). No matter how effectively an organization plans to mitigate...Read More
Construction presents significant infection risks to patients within any healthcare facility. Virtually every construction project generates dust that can carry fungal spores into patient areas, if construction areas and air from those areas are not appropriately isolated. This dust can prove deadly to sensitive immunocompromised populations. While healthcare construction professionals have become adept at the...Read More
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
Heightened interest in indoor air quality is coming from all corners of public and environmental health, including the CDC and the White House, creating a renewed focus on alternative methods for “air cleaning” or disinfection technologies. Improving indoor air quality is a worthwhile goal, but implementation must be done carefully and without harm. Generally, the...Read More
As COVID-19 precautions fall away, with the suspension of masking and social distancing requirements indoors in most locations, facility managers (FMs) may find that the next stage of the pandemic brings new challenges. While COVID cases have been much lower in recent months than during the height of the pandemic, it’s unlikely that FMs will...Read More
Having an effective water management program has proven critical for minimizing patient exposure to a wide range of dangerous waterborne pathogens. In fact, one CDC study found that approximately 21% of HAIs can be transmitted via water. However, many hospitals have struggled with the development and implementation of a comprehensive water management program. Pathogens include...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
Most healthcare facility managers already have in place a water management plan that outlines control measures for mitigating the risk of waterborne pathogens. Despite this, many of those same facility managers find themselves struggling with how to implement these plans in line with The Joint Commission’s (TJC) new water management program standard for the Hospital...Read More
