Videos

After an Expo like no other, Dennis looks forward to the 70th year of advocacy for perioperative nurses.

A recent study's results also could indicate how other vaccinations, including COVID-19 and pneumonia, affect patients.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending March 25.

Investigators concluded that HCPs can safely return to work after 7 days of quarantine if they test negative for COVID-19 on days 5 to 7.

The system gives infection preventionists another tool to combat the pathogen despite implementation challenges.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending March 11.

Key recommendations in the report include normalizing mask wearing and avoiding the supply chain failures.

Compliance has increased up to 50% on key infection prevention and control practices at a South Carolina health system due to these short emoji-cartoons.

Staff shortages, public recognition, and moving out of the medical field are all issues that the sterile processing industry has faced.

Jamie Seltzer: “We have so much history—recent history as well as 100 years ago—to tell us that it would be incredibly unusual and atypical if SARS-CoV-2 were the only viral infection that did not lead to post-viral complications.”

Proper ventilation can greatly reduce the environmental strain on operating rooms. However, there’s no one-size-fits all solution.

Just when should a health care professional return to work after a high-risk COVID-19 exposure? In a Q&A, Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC, FAPIC, explains the CDC’s changing recommendations.

Anthony Harris, MD, MBA, MPH: “There are nights where I go to bed thinking, ‘Will tomorrow be the day that I read about a tremendous increase in severity in Omicron, and antibody dependent enhancement could be the cause of it?’”

CDC’s Michael Craig: “Every country is an importer and an exporter of resistance…. And our hope is that this could be a jumpstart to help some of these countries start to build the capacity that is needed everywhere.”

La’Titia Houston MPH, BSN, RN, CIC: “We work not only with the bedside nurses and the sterile processors, but even with our clinicians, our physicians. They want a timeout before the procedure is even performed because they want to ensure that the scope did pass during the high-level disinfection procedure.”

Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “The deer apparently live with COVID-19 quite well, but, yet rapidly spread it amongst the herds. And that’s actually very problematic, because if it finds a host that it doesn’t make sick, but yet it can mutate and change and then reinfect other animals and plus mankind, that is one of the worrisome scenarios that could take place.”

One of many presentations at the ISSA Show North America 2021 this week seeks to light an entrepreneurial fire under an old concept.

Crystal Heishman, MBA, MSN, RN, ONC, CIC: “You don’t ever want to go into a sterilization department and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong’. Because they’re the subject matter experts. You want to learn. You want to learn the process. You want to work together because it makes a stronger partnership.”

Doe Kley, RN, CIC, MPH,T-CHEST: “We just can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing with our singular focus on one pathogen. We know that while we were doing that—while we were so busy with COVID-19—other really dangerous and emerging pathogens got a foothold. The one that scares me the most is Candida auris.”

Darrel Hicks: “EVS teams work around professionals who are certified—whether it’s respiratory therapists, physical therapists, the RNs, the doctors—and I think if we ever hoped to elevate their status that we need to certify environmental services workers to a certain level of knowledge before they even start cleaning patient rooms.”

Jason Tetro, author of The Germ Code: “Moving forward, I think we’re going to be going into this idea of seasonality, or as I like to say, cold, flu and COVID-19 seasons.” And the so-called "monster variant"? It's already here, says Tetro. It's called Delta.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending October 22.

Brian Flannigan: “The reason why water quality and water safety is so important in sterile processing is that there have been direct connections made between the water systems and hospital infections: operating room infections, asset life problems, maintenance problems, staining and discoloration of equipment.”

Anthony Harris, MD, MBA, MPH: “We know that mandates such [as the COVID-19 vaccine mandate] don’t exist in isolation. For any school age child that wants to attend public school, guess what? Be vaccinated. Likewise for universities, in many cases. If you’re living in a dormitory scenario. This is not a far cry from precedent that’s already been set.”

IAHCSMM’s Damien Berg: “COVID-19 put a light on sterile processing professionals in a positive way. We became a force multiplier in the hospital by the things we did. And we got known.”

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending October 1.

Pro: Health care professionals work around vulnerable patients, and in environments that might be contaminated by COVID-19. Con: Patients want to see their caregiver’s face.

Joshua Nosanchuk, MD, Programs Chairperson for ID Week: “What the infection preventionists are doing I think is a true blessing for our community. And not always as well recognized as it should be…. I just want to say thank you to all the people that are doing this work.”