Preventing Preventable Infections
Roughly one third of the U.S. population will experience shingles in their lifetime. Shingles can occur anywhere on the body. It’s important to recognize shingles so you can protect yourself from exposure. Because shingles...
Ah, the SIR. You’ve seen it in HAI tables or graphed on charts. You’ve heard your manager and infection preventionist (IP) talk about it. It might make some sense, but you still don’t know...
Hand hygiene can be a matter of life and death. In 1848, Ignaz Semmelweis, the “father of hand hygiene,” demonstrated a relationship between increased rates of maternal death and contaminated hands in an Austrian...
Communicable disease transmission. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when because it’s only a matter of time. It happens in the best of medical centers. I know because it happened...
Depending on whether your laboratory uses a standalone or multi-step testing algorithm and depending on the test methodology(ies) used — and in which order — a positive C. diff test might be detecting colonization...
Being hospitalized can be a scary event for many reasons. Getting a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is just one reason. One in 31 patients has at least one HAI during their hospitalization. Infections can lead...
