Articles Tagged With: cleaning
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Potential Spread Via Droplets from Dirty to Clean Instruments
Infection preventionists may want to recheck the distance between the separation of dirty and clean activities in cleaning and reprocessing rooms after researchers found contaminated droplets can travel more than seven feet.
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Healthcare Personnel Use of PPE for COVID-19 Spurs Fungal Outbreak
Healthcare personnel’s (HCP) practice of wearing multiple layers of gowns and gloves to treat COVID-19 patients contributed to an outbreak of Candida auris bloodstream infections at a Florida hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
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CMS Updates COVID-19 Infection Control Survey
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services revised its “COVID-19 Focused Infection Control Survey Tool: Acute and Continuing Care” recently.
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With Focus on COVID-19, Other HAIs Increase
Infection preventionists are reporting increasing outbreaks of healthcare associated infections as the COVID-19 pandemic demands outsized efforts by overworked caregivers.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Step-Wise Interventions for Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile
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Kill the Bug, Hurt the Worker
Powerful cleaning and disinfectant products are being deployed in hospitals to eradicate dangerous pathogens on environmental surfaces. Both spore-forming Clostridioides difficile and an emerging fungal strain of Candida auris require strong sporicidals to be eradicated from the hospital environment. Yet the price of protecting the patient is being exacted on healthcare workers who may have serious complications after repeated exposure to these chemicals in disinfectants.
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Tips for Effective and Efficient Scope Cleaning
Preventing infections through better facility and scope-cleaning practices takes a concerted effort on the part of surgery centers. Leaders must make this a quality improvement project, and develop and train staff to follow best practices.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Put a Lid on It; ESBL Is Blasé Compared with this Superbug; Cleaner Data on Cleaning Needed; All Those Fake Knees and Hips
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Culturing protocols devised for duodenoscopes to prevent CRE
Responding to a series of outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) linked to duodenoscopes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed an interim protocol for culturing the devices before use to create a greater margin of safety for patients. But as others have noted, the approach is not foolproof and could be costly if facilities determine that they must purchase more scopes to adopt the protocol.