Understanding C. Difficile and Soap’s Role November is C. difficile Awareness Month, a time to reflect on the progress made in combating this challenging healthcare-associated infection (HAI) and to reinforce best practices for prevention. According to the CDC’s 2023 HAI Progress Report, healthcare settings across the United States have achieved continued reductions in Clostridioides difficile […]
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Tools and Data for Infection Preventionists A recently published paper (Nori et al., 2022) shines a light on the challenges endured by the infection prevention (IP) and antimicrobial stewardship (AS) workforce since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Published in Antimicrobial Stewardship and Healthcare Epidemiology, the paper describes situations contributing to burnout, as described in
Why Infection Preventionists Need Better Tools, Data, and Support Read More »
“People don’t realize the toll [the pandemic has] taken on the infectious disease response folks,” said infectious disease epidemiologist and infection preventionist (IP) Saskia Popescu in a recent Huffington Post article (Wong, 2022). Having experienced vitriol from people against scientists, Popescu remains committed to applying the infection prevention and control (IPC) lessons learned during the
Recruit, Train & Retain Infection Preventionists: Frontline Tips Read More »
Burnout Costs and Penalties in Hygiene Cases The first two parts of this series about how to make a financial case for automated, or electronic, hand hygiene compliance systems covered the costs of healthcare-acquired infections (Nour-Omid, July 26, 2021) and the costs of direct observation of care providers’ compliance (Nour-Omid, Aug. 16, 2021). This article
Financial Case for Automated Hygiene: Part 3 – Penalties & Burnout Costs Read More »
Protecting patients and workers inside of a hospital from the spread of infectious pathogens requires testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) and data – information about care providers’ compliance with infection prevention and control (IPC) procedures. In the case of COVID, it also requires vaccination. All of these tools are needed for hospitals to create and
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Understanding Observation Costs in Hygiene Automation Our previous blog article about making a financial case for automated hand hygiene compliance covered the costs of healthcare-acquired infections. In this one, we’ll explain why the money spent on direct observation often leads to misleading compliance data. It’s clear that direct observation inflates hand hygiene compliance rates (Nour-Omid,
Financial Case for Automated Hygiene: Part 2 – Cost of Observation Read More »
Automated Hygiene’s Role in HAI Cost Reduction How do you make a financial case for investing in an automated hand hygiene compliance system during a time of tight budgets? Consider two scenarios – first, a hospitalized patient acquires a central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) due to inadequate hand hygiene, and a second, proper hand hygiene
Financial Case for Automated Hygiene: Part 1 – HAI Cost Reduction Read More »
5 Studies Show How Direct Observation Inflates Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates Due to Hawthorne Effect 5 Studies: How Observation Inflates Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates 5 Studies: How Observation Inflates Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates 5 Studies: How Observation Inflates Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates In today’s fast-paced, high-stress health care environment, it can be tempting to skip
5 Studies: How Observation Inflates Hand Hygiene Compliance Read More »
If there’s any silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that hospitals and long-term care facilities now have precautions in place that can lead to lower morbidity and mortality from healthcare-acquired infections in the future. COVID-19 has improved awareness of how diligent attention to hand hygiene, mask wearing, physical distancing, and other safeguards can reduce
4 COVID-19 Precautions That Will Continue to Prevent Infections Read More »
COVID-19 Elevates Importance of HAI Prevention in Hospitals COVID-19 Elevates Importance of HAI Prevention in Hospitals Recent data published by two respected scientific journals show a link between COVID-19 and higher rates of nosocomial infections, also referred to as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and demonstrate the importance of hand hygiene compliance in infection prevention. According to
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