2023 Editions of healthcare Hygiene Magazine
Explore the December 2023 Edition
Even as the healthcare sector continues to re-examine transmission-based precautions considering the clinical, fiscal and operational fall-out from the COVID pandemic, one agency is taking on an update of 16-year-old isolation precautions and are poised to identify transmission modes as either air or touch, rather than aerosol or droplet.
In its early November 2023 meeting, the Isolation Precautions workgroup of the Healthcare Infection Control Advisory Committee (HICPAC) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented a revised draft document and members voted unanimously to approve all sections of Part 1 of the workgroup’s recommendations to update the 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings. The revised guideline is now called the 2024 Guideline to Prevent Transmission of Pathogens in Healthcare Settings..
Explore the November 2023 Edition
UThe COVID-19 pandemic tested the healthcare sector’s preparedness and left it with lingering questions, including: What relevant scientific information did we possess before the pandemic? Which strategies were successful, and which could be improved? What will the next pandemic look like? What research will facilitate identification of the next pandemic? And what must be accomplished to prepare for possible pathogens, including unexpected or re-emerging pathogens? (WHO, 2022)
These questions have been among the priorities being addressed in scientific symposia across the globe, as we know it is a matter of when — not if – another pandemic will strike. The guiding caveat of infectious disease management has been gleaning insights from lessons learned, but it is critical to get out in front of what scientists are calling Pathogen X, which causes Disease X.
Explore the October 2023 Edition
Researchers in Australia say that the key to successfully reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections that can be attributed to the healthcare environment is to design and implement multimodal interventions that are part of a meaningful and sustainable environmental hygiene program.
Because infection transmission is multi-faceted and “involves the complex interplay between a pathogen, a host and their environment (including humans),” Browne and Mitchell (2023) emphasize that strategies to prevent pathogen carriage on hands, fomites and surfaces must consider important contextual factors that are likely to play a role in the effectiveness of infection prevention strategies, including organizational culture, governance, support, resources, capacity for risk, as well as motivation and ability to change.
Explore the September 2023 Edition
Implementation science, viewed through the lens of infection prevention and control, can boost compliance, and is a viable approach for improving outcomes. At its essence, it focuses on factors that promote the systematic uptake of research findings and implementation of evidence-based practices into routine care.
Using broad behavioral and socio-adaptive concepts can help deliver high-quality care is the conclusion of the new SHEA/IDSA/APIC practice recommendation Implementing strategies to prevent infections in acute-care settings, which introduces and explains common implementation concepts and frameworks relevant to healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control.
Explore the August 2024 Edition
Use this While patients and healthcare personnel see the provision of care as the primary focus in the hospital setting, other professionals such as healthcare engineers and physical plant managers are tasked with keeping the environment of care (EOC) running as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. The healthcare “built environment” may be taken for granted or fade into the background, but it plays a critical role in how successful healthcare may be delivered and ultimately, the outcomes derived from that care. Zimring, et al. (2013) define the built environment in healthcare as “the hospital structure and any other fixed or semi-permanent components of the facility with which healthcare personnel, patients, and their families must interact.”
Explore the July 2023 Edition
Addressing emerging threats was the theme of the Cleaning & Disinfection Symposium held during the 2023 annual meeting of Infection Prevention & Control Canada (IPAC) late last month, with experts tackling imperatives ranging from dry surface biofilms to Candida auris infections and taking an all-encompassing approach to infection prevention. Let’s explore these emerging threats and the solutions proposed by these thought leaders.
Explore the June 2023 Edition
2003 was a busy year, epidemiologically speaking. Twenty years ago, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first discovered in Asia; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) responded by providing guidance for surveillance, clinical and laboratory evaluation, and reporting. While the U.S. was not as impacted as other countries in this outbreak, in hindsight it helped set the stage for preparedness for SARS-CoV-2 in 2019.
Meet the EIC Guideline
2003 also marked the release of the CDC/HICPAC Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities (2003), a compilation of recommendations for the prevention and control of infectious diseases associated with healthcare environments. This document revised multiple sections from previous editions of the CDC’s Guideline for Handwashing and Hospital Environmental Control, and also incorporated discussions of air and water environmental concerns from CDC’s Guideline for the Prevention of Nosocomial Pneumonia. It also consolidated relevant environmental infection control measures from other CDC guidelines and included two topics not addressed in previous CDC guidelines — infection control concerns related to animals in healthcare facilities and water quality in hemodialysis settings.
Explore the May 2024 Edition
Non-compliance with manufacturers’ instructions for use (IFUs) can have far-reaching consequences, including adverse events, infections and other suboptimal patient outcomes. It can also represent an occupational hazard to technicians in the sterile processing department (SPD).
As we know, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) defines IFUs as written recommendations provided by the manufacturer that define instructions for operation and safe and effective use of its device.
Explore the April 2024 Edition
Common sense, as well as numerous studies in the medical literature, tell us that missed nursing care as well as lower staffing levels contribute to the likelihood that patients can suffer harm, adverse outcomes and infections, or even die.
“There is a strong demonstrated link between staff-patient communication and improved outcomes for patients,” confirms Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, an organization representing employers and other purchasers of healthcare calling for improved safety and quality in hospitals. “The more nurses can communicate to the patient what care is supposed to be delivered and what is delivered, that provides a foundation for a more activated patient. Patients that are hospitalized are asked to complete a patient experience survey (HCAHPS) after their discharge from the hospital, which provides patients the opportunity to share their experience with nurse communication, doctor communication, and the responsiveness of the staff. The responsiveness of staff and perceptions of nursing is linked to research on patient outcomes and safety. That’s why a hospital’s performance on those measures is included in Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grade and publicly reported on CMS’s Care Compare website. We need more measures of patient experience from more facilities, such as ASCs and pediatric care.”
Explore the March 2024 Edition
Technology-related hazards in the healthcare environment are escalating as advanced equipment and medical devices proliferate. The challenge is that clinicians may not be adequately educated and trained to interact properly with this technology, thus opening themselves – and their patients – to adverse outcomes during care delivery.
ECRI, a non-profit patient safety organization, has released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report for 2023, cautioning about potential safety risks with 10 health technologies, including single-use products, medication cabinets, cybersecurity of cloud-based systems, and ventilator disinfection.
Explore the February 2024 Edition
Missed nursing care is often defined as care that is delayed, partially completed, or not completed at all. The phenomena of missed nursing care takes on new meaning during and after the pandemic, when healthcare personnel who were already stretched thin are struggling with burnout from too high a patient load and too few resources, and who are now taking it upon themselves to decide what care practices to leave undone. This problematic trend that jeopardizes patient safety has clear ramifications for infection prevention and control.
AHRQ (2019) says that missed nursing care is a subset of the category known as error of omission and that it “not only constitutes a form of medical error that may affect safety, but has been deemed to be a unique type of medical underuse.”
Explore the January 2024 Edition
We highlight some of the key information coming out of sessions at the Cleaning, Disinfection & Sterilization Conference, developed by the Association for Professionals in Infection Prevention and Epidemiology (APIC) that was held in November 2022.
In their presentation addressing key updates in ANSI/AAMI ST91 and other standards, Amanda Benedict, MA, AStd, vice president of standards for the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), and Damien S. Berg, BA, BS, CRCST, AAMIF, vice president of strategic initiatives for the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) reviewed the clarified and expanded evidence-based practice in processing endoscopes for enhanced patient safety that is contained in ANSI/AAMI ST91, Flexible and semi-rigid endoscope processing in healthcare facilities. They covered elements of the standard that have changed, as well as the key elements that infection preventionists (IPs) need to be aware of for implementation.
