MOVING ANNOUNCEMENT
We have moved our hand hygiene blog to another location. Our new site will give the chance to comment our posts and search older posts easier. We hope that these changes will bring us closer.
Study Confirms Diabetics are More Likely to Get SSIs Following Range of Procedures
2015.10.28.
Diabetic patients are at considerably increased risk for developing surgical site infections (SSIs) while undergoing most types of surgeries, compared to non-diabetic patients, according to a new study published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). “Diabetes has been recognized as a risk factor for infection following some surgeries, but has been a source of debate for other procedures,” said Emily Toth Martin, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “This study is a first step… Read more
Hospital workers often transfer germs when removing gloves, gowns
2015.10.19.
(Reuters Health) – Florescent lotion and black light revealed that health care workers often contaminate their skin and clothing while removing their protective gear, researchers say. This contamination can spread germs and place the health care workers at risk for infection, the authors write in JAMA Internal Medicine. “It was surprising for the participants in the study to see that they frequently contaminated themselves during (personal protective equipment) removal,” said senior author Dr. Curtis J. Donskey of the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “Most of the participants appeared to be unaware of the high risk for contamination and many reported… Read more
10 years of Clean Care is Safer Care
2015.10.13.
This First Global Patient Safety Challenge, Clean Care is Safer Care was launched in October 2005. Since then it has existed to support the reduction of health care-associated infections and their consequences. Much has been achieved around the world, supported by a behavioural change campaigning for improved hand hygiene in health care. Re-energising the world! 2005-2015 Clean Care is Safer Care For 10 years member states and autonomous regions around the world have pledged their commitment to clean care. Now some of them are reminding the world just how important it still is to work towards clean hands at the… Read more
Antimicrobial resistance (by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)
2015.10.01.
Basic facts Antibiotics are one of the most important therapeutic discoveries in medical history. They have revolutionised the way we treat patients with bacterial infections and have contributed to reducing the mortality and morbidity from bacterial diseases. They are also an essential tool for modern medicine and common procedures such as transplantation, chemotherapy for cancer and even orthopaedic surgery could not be performed without the availability of potent antibiotics. Unfortunately, antibiotics have been liable to misuse. They are often unnecessarily prescribed for viral infections, against which they have no effect. Similarly when diagnoses are not accurately made, more often than… Read more
SwipeSense gets $9.6M for hand hygiene tracking system (by Jonah Comstock)
2015.09.23.
Smart hand hygiene sensor-maker SwipeSense, based in Evanston, Illinois, has raised $9.6 million according to a new SEC filing. This brings the company’s total funding to $12.1 million. The companyraised $1.7 million last May. Previous investors in the company include Jumpstart Ventures and Healthbox, which counts SwipeSense among the graduates of its very first class back in 2011. SwipeSense offers hospitals different kinds of hand sanitizer dispensers, including a wall-mounted version and a wearable version. The sanitizers are all connected to an app that automates the manual observation reporting and also analyzes the information. Everyone in the hospital also wears a smart… Read more
Why hand hygiene still needs a clean-up (by Jennifer Trueland)
2015.09.17.
t a time when many believe the issue of hand hygiene has been fixed, much work remains to be done to embed robust systems in UK healthcare, says Jennifer Trueland. Read the case studies related to this article here As the senior nurse in the infection prevention and control team at Salisbury Foundation Trust, Fiona McCarthy is a regular at trust board meetings. It’s important, she says, that board members are aware of their responsibilities towards infection prevention, and also that they are kept up to date with any issues. “There are always a lot of questions – which means… Read more
Hand Hygiene: The First Defense Against HAI (by Don Sadler)
2015.09.08.
The statistics regarding healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are truly frightening: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that two million patients get an HAI while in the hospital each year, and 99,000 of them die as a result of the HAI. The financial cost of HAIs to hospitals is an estimated $45 billion annually. Often, hospitals think that their hand hygiene compliance rate is above 90 percent, but whne it’s measured using the specific criteria of the TST, it’s approximately 45 percent. Participating hospitals that have used the TST have increased this to over 80 percent. – Dr. Erin… Read more
3rd International Course on Implementation in Infection Control
2015.08.28.
There is overwhelming evidence that practice change successfully reduces healthcare-associated infections. The implementation of such multidisciplinary and multimodal programmes however, is challenging. The objective of this course is to provide theoretical concepts and practice case studies about how to establish infection control programmes in healthcare settings. Participants have the opportunity to visit the University Hospitals of Geneva in the preceding days of the course. You can find the details here. Source: www.global.aesculap-academy.com