Are you following recommended practices when processing implants? Both the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Association of Perioperative Nurses (AORN) state that a load containing an implant should be quarantined until the results of the biological indicator (BI) testing are available. The rationale is to…

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Gently probing a wound with a dry cotton swab after surgery for a perforated appendix dramatically reduced infections in a study. Only 3% of patients who had the daily probing got surgical site infections (SSIs) compared with 19% in the control group who did not. Though the exact mechanism isn't…

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Observation can sometimes give you an idea about how well the staff is complying with OR cleaning protocols, but it can't tell you about organic residues that might remain on surfaces. Bacterial cultures of the OR environment can also have drawbacks. To evaluate the effectiveness of its cleaning, a Connecticut…

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The new federal Partnership for Patients, rolled out in April 2011, seeks to save 60,000 lives over the next 3 years by stopping millions of preventable complications and injuries. Part of the goal is reducing hospital readmissions by 20% by the end of 2013 over 2010 levels. Surgical site infections…

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Compared with cell phones of hospital staff, those brought into a facility by patients and visitors are twice as likely to carry dangerous, multidrug-resistant pathogens, finds a new study in the American Journal of Infection Control. Turkish researchers analyzed samples from 200 mobile phones—67 belonging to staff and 133 to…

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Recognizing how seriously reprocessing flaws can affect patients, the Joint Commission elevated its high-level disinfection standards in 2009, placing them at the same level as the sterilization standards. Under the changes, high-level disinfection is scored as Category A, the same as sterilization, and not as Category C as it was…

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Bacterial contamination is common on the hands of anesthesia providers, with high rates of transmission to the surgical field, a new study finds. "As anesthesiologists, we like to think the surgical drapes protect the patient from tens of trillions of microorganisms that are in and on our bodies. Nope!" says…

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Flu vaccinations should be a condition of employment or privileges for all health care personnel, two infection control societies advocate. Being vaccinated is a "professional and ethical responsibility" and not complying with a facility's vaccination policy should not be tolerated, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) said in…

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Like facilities around the country, you are probably considering alternatives to the Steris System 1 (SS1) for reprocessing your medical devices. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a notice in December 2009 stating that the SS1 as currently marketed had not been approved or cleared for its label claims,…

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As the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) reaches its fifth anniversary, a large new study shows mixed results for the SCIP measures. There's also discussion about what comes next. That could include action by the Joint Commission to weave hospitals' performance on SCIP core measures into the accreditation process. SCIP,…

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