Health care workers may be suffering in silence from work-related dermatitis, much of it linked to frequent hand washing. Cases of work-related dermatitis are about 100 times greater than the rate reflected in federal data, and health care workers are…
Will Sawyer, MD, is something of a voice in the wilderness when it comes to spreading the gospel of hand hygiene, but he assures me with an easy laugh that he won’t let the issue drive him crazy like Ignaz Semmelweis…
With the new Sydney strain of norovirus causing an increase in outbreaks in health care settings, infection control measures are critical to prevent transmission in hospitals and nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the following basic…
Norovirus has become a common scourge, generally perceived as an extremely disruptive but self-limiting nuisance. There is another aspect of this emerging virus that has been somewhat overshadowed: It is a “debilitating and life-threatening infection in immunosuppressed patients,” researchers report.1…
A hospital outbreak of Klebsiella oxytoca was linked to contaminated sinks which were used for both hand hygiene and disposal of patient body fluids, investigators reported. K. oxytoca is primarily a health care–associated pathogen acquired from environmental sources. During…
The world has dirty hands, but who is trying to do anything about? Well, the World Health Organization for one, which has designated May 5, 2012 an international day of hand hygiene observance. The 5th day of the 5th month…
“Big Brother is Watching You,” wrote George Orwell in his classic cautionary novel 1984. The increasingly high-tech solutions to the historic problem of hand hygiene (HH) compliance raise this familiar specter, as health care workers are being tagged, badged, beeped,…
With historical hand hygiene compliance rates typically in the 50% range, infection preventionists have tried multiple interventions that include a vast array of signs and messages in an attempt to change the behavior of health care workers. Can one word…
Health care workers who want to “do the right thing” must be supported by a culture change that recognizes infection prevention as a system problem that warrants a system solution, said Elaine Larson, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical and therapeutic Research…
Stacey Taylor RN,BSN, entered her job as a rookie infection preventionist with much more enthusiasm than experience, ready to take on a new role she saw as both interesting and important. Then, like some shunned geek in high school, she…