HAIs

This digital issue explores disease caused by emerging infectious threats as well as hospital pathogens, and the interventions – such as hand hygiene, contact precautions and environmental cleaning – that can be used to control and prevent infection transmission.

Infection preventionists (IPs) continue to be consumed with keeping up with evolving infection prevention imperatives, according to an online survey conducted by ICT that asked respondents what they believed were the most important issues facing the entire infection prevention and hospital epidemiology community in 2016. Other top issues on their minds for the new year included addressing antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance, advancing quality improvement and patient safety, addressing emerging pathogens and infectious diseases, and evolving the evidence base to answer unresolved issues.

As healthcare professionals we often wonder how much difference we truly make in the lives of our patients. I often wonder if I am doing everything that I possibly can to create a safe environment for every person around me - not just patients but my team as well. Maybe you are a nurse or tech who has wondered the same. Having worked in healthcare for the last nine years and endoscopy for the last four, I have met a variety of people each with their own story to tell. There are certainly moments that bring to light just how much impact we truly have in someone’s life. Errors often occur due to a lack of education or what I would refer to as follow-the-leader. Someone performs a task incorrectly and it continues until someone questions the process. That is where we come in. I want to encourage all of you to take that step forward and be the advocate that our patients so desperately need. Let me explain why I am so passionate about infection control and what we can do to continue creating a safer environment for all of our patients.

Biofilms frequently coat the surfaces of catheters, and of various medical implants and prostheses, where they can cause life-threatening infections. New research at the Sahlgrenska Academy show that coating implants with a certain "activator" can prevent Staphylococcus aureus, the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, from forming biofilms.

One weapon in the armament against surgical site infections (SSIs) is the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), an essential tool to helping hospitals reduce the rate of SSIs and other complications that arise during and after patient procedures, says Clifford Ko, MD, MS, MSHS, FACS, director of the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care at the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Ko will deliver the keynote address, “Achieving Quality Improvement in Patient Care,” at the OR Manager conference to be held Oct. 7-9, 2015 in Nashville, Tenn.

The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at MedStar Washington Hospital Center reached a remarkable safety milestone on July 31 -- three years with zero central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in its tiniest and most vulnerable babies. While three years CLABSI-free is extraordinary for any intensive care unit, what makes this accomplishment so remarkable is that these babies “are so small and fragile it makes it easier for infection to spread,” says Zacharia Cherian, MD, chairman of neonatology at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “In addition, their immune systems are still immature, so fighting off infection is much more difficult than for a healthy baby.”

An upset in the body's natural balance of gut bacteria that may lead to life-threatening bloodstream infections can be reversed by enhancing a specific immune defense response, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. In the study, published online in Nature Medicine, scientists identified how a certain transcription factor -- a protein that that turns genes on and off -- works in partnership with a naturally occurring antibiotic to kill infection-causing fungi called Candida albicans.

If you have ever watched a fibrin sheath progress to a thrombus on the surface of a catheter -- a process that initiates instantly upon entry into the bloodstream and proceeds quickly, often in just minutes -- you will understand why the presence of contaminating bacteria on the surface of a catheter is something to be rigorously avoided. The rapidly forming fibrin sheath encases such surface bacteria, both shielding them and facilitating biofilm formation.

Slips, trips, falls and sharps are widely recognized as potential occupational risks in the healthcare industry.  However, there is another dangerous hazard that often goes unnoticed and underreported-splashes.

A UC Irvine research team will receive up to $5 million to further develop a bloodstream infection detection system that speeds up diagnosis times with unprecedented accuracy – allowing physicians to treat patients with potentially deadly ailments more promptly and effectively. The five-year federal award is part of a National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases program to fund nine institutions that will create tools to identify certain pathogens that frequently cause infections in healthcare settings – especially those that are resistant to most antimicrobials.