Vascular Access

Recent CDC HICPAC revisions regarding SARS-CoV-2 control face criticism from the World Health Network and others due to alleged breaches in committee structure and erroneous infection control guidance, potentially impacting COVID-19 management and immunocompromised individuals in health care.

"If we want to influence our health care workers toward a shift in practice, we must first tackle the core beliefs that drive that behavior," writes Heather Saunders, MPH, RN, CIC.

Neal Buchalter, MBA, president of Parker Laboratories, spoke with Infection Control Today® in an exclusive interview about the product, the companies involved, and how it came to the US market.

Infection Control Today speaks with the CEO of Blue Water Biotech about how to get around antimicrobial resistance and why there may not be a need for more antibiotic creation.

Rates of health care-associated infections rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators have found that often the infections came from the patients themselves. But how?

Numerous pathogen outbreaks have been from the water in medical facilities. So what are the dangers, and what can infection preventionists do to prevent morbidities and mortalities from occurring?

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending April 9, 2023.

Nation Home Infusion Association addresses the media's coverage of the recent limited home infusion therapy study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending January 6, 2023.

In this third installment of 3, Infection Control Today® continues the one father's story of how sepsis can enter central lines and how it affects the entire family.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending December 24, 2022.

The TAP Strategy developed by the CDC and SAIL from the US Department of Veterans Affairs prove to be key tools for setting health care-associated infection prevention goals on CLABSI and CAUTI.

Infection Control Today's® Product Locator is a monthly column highlighting some of the latest advanced technology in the infection prevention field.

Having complete IV start kits or central line insertion kits to reduce gel type variability and, thus gel contamination and following AIUM and INS disinfection recommendations are 2 ways to prevent health care-acquired infections.

The purpose and function of a vascular access specialist team or trained individual may include the initial assessment and insertion and management of peripheral intravenous catheters, midlines, peripherally inserted central catheters, arterial catheters, and external and/or internal jugular, femoral, and subclavian catheters.

Using an ultrasound transducer may look easy, but it is a highly specialized skill, and to use a transducer requires education, accountability, and competency checks to occur regularly.

Using ultrasound transducers is often necessary in the emergency department, but too often the proper procedures to protect against health care associated infections are not followed, and clinicians are worried.

New study describes the case report and gives guidelines on how to prevent infection in the home.

Summary: Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending March 18.

No health care worker is immune from the dangers of handling sharps. Physicians hold a rate just under that of nurses, mostly related to use of scalpels, but are less likely to report these injuries.

Though tough months lie ahead for infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals, hope remains that at some point in 2021 things will begin to settle down. In the end, it comes down to a simple formula: We win, COVID-19 loses.

Although both vascular access and infection prevention have their own focus, our commonality is in ensuring patients get the care they need while minimizing their chances of nosocomial infections.

The discussion and research underscore the potential advantages of vascular access services teams (VASTs) for assessment, insertion, management, complications reduction, and staff education.

The mixed-method, prospective, observational before-after study was performed in a large tertiary academic children’s hospital in the Netherlands and included a preintervention period and an intervention period.