American journal of infection control
-
Am J Infect Control · Apr 2018
The development of hand hygiene compliance imperatives in an emergency department.
Monitoring results showing poor hand hygiene compliance in a major, busy emergency department prompted a quality improvement initiative to improve hand hygiene compliance. ⋯ The context of care and barriers to compliance should be reflected in hand hygiene expectations and monitoring. In the emergency department, the requirement to deliver urgent live-saving care can supersede conventional hand hygiene expectations.
-
Am J Infect Control · Apr 2018
Wearing long sleeves while prepping a patient in the operating room decreases airborne contaminants.
The use of long sleeves by nonscrubbed personnel in the operating room has been called into question. We hypothesized that wearing long sleeves and gloves, compared with having bare arms without gloves, while applying the skin preparation solution would decrease particulate and microbial contamination. ⋯ The use of long sleeves and gloves while applying the skin preparation solution decreased particulate and microbial shedding in several of the operating rooms tested. Although long sleeves may not be necessary for all operating room personnel, they may decrease airborne contamination while the skin prep is applied, which may lead to decreased surgical site infections.
-
Providers in pediatric post-acute care facilities were surveyed about knowledge of and resources for antimicrobial stewardship. All agreed that antibiotics were overused in such pediatric facilities, but 60% had not implemented stewardship strategies. Lack of treatment guidelines (47%) was identified as the most common barrier to antimicrobial stewardship.