Healthcare Associated Infections & the Environment: Mitigating Risk with Environmental Control Strategies

Categories: Articles & Healthcare June 19, 2018
EVS

PDI Healthcare’s Clinical Science Liaison, Deva Rea, MPH, BSN, RN, wrote an article on HAIs and the environment for Healthcare Facilities Today.


Healthcare associated infections & the environment: Mitigating risk with environmental control strategies

Healthcare Facilities Today (healthcarefacilitiestoday.com)

Author: Dava Rea, MPH, BSN, RN

Excerpt:

Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) continue to be a global burden with significant patient outcomes and costs. Despite the many interventions and strategies put into place to mitigate HAIs, they remain problematic. In 2011, an estimated 722,000 HAIs were reported in U.S. acute care hospitals along with approximately 75,000 patient deaths.¹

Efforts to minimize device-related HAIs such as central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) have made considerable improvements over the past few years due to a concerted focus on device utilization and proper maintenance. However, other HAIs such as non-ventilator associated pneumonia, Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) and surgical site infections (SSIs) still have a substantial need for improvement.²  

Read Full Article