INFECTION PREVENTION
peer-reviewed studies, then it hasn’t met the bar of an evidence-based solution.” GOJO says that communication is key. “Showing healthcare facilities our control over key raw materials and components, walking them through our approach to redundancy and partnerships, and being open not just about what we can do but how, has been extremely helpful to our hospital partners,” said Jaimee Rosenthal, Acute Healthcare Market Director, GOJO Industries. “Open communication about our abil- ity to satisfy their needs for these critical infection control products lets healthcare facilities focus on what’s most important – the health and safety of their staff, patients, residents and visitors,” she said.
it to future practices. “Early in the pan- demic, before much was known about COVID- 19, inside and outside of healthcare facilities implemented extreme cleaning and disinfect- ing. This subsided as we learned more about the virus and how it is transmitted. However, it is important to apply
the lessons learned and is an opportune time for Infection Preventionists (IPs) and Environmental Services (EVS) to continue to collaborate and assess if the cleaning and disinfection procedures they have adopted throughout the pandemic still serve the facility’s needs and meet regulatory require- ments,” she said.
Kinnos CEO, Jason Kang, maintains Hand hygiene coaching moment from GOJO
Then and now; Lessons learned
Holly Montejano, PDI Clinical Science Liaison, MS, CIC, CPHQ, VA-BC, quoted an article from the Journal of
Infectious Diseases entitled, “History of infection prevention and control,” stating: “The acute care setting saw the inception of the infection control profes- sional in the 1950s because of a nationwide healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus epidemic.”1 “Now, infection preventionists wear many hats within a facility,
that having a documented and formalized infection prevention program is critical because it requires a coordinated approach across multiple departments where each stakeholder understands their role and the right products and processes to implement. Kinnos notes that their Highlight for Bleach Wipes are experiencing an elevation in demand. The company claims that the additive for bleach wipes tackles the key pain points of quality, training and patient engagement.
Kinnos Highlight disinfectant tint for wipes
UVDI disinfection robot in patient room and OR
working with internal stakeholders to ensure policies and procedures are being followed to keep patients safe and infec- tion free,” Montejano continued. “The pandemic has highlighted issues that arise when these programs are not in place, par- ticularly along the continuum of care, such as long-term care facilities. Given the col- lateral damage the pandemic has caused (in terms of HAI increases, staff shortages, staff burnout), infection prevention programs are an imperative healthcare initiative that helps provide patient safety guidance and ensures compliance with best practices,” Montejano said.
Doe Kley, Senior Infection Preventionist, Clorox Healthcare, stresses the importance of learning from the past and applying
“Respectively, these demands have been driven by labor shortages and high staff turnover rates, rising HAI rates, and COVID impacting patient perception of cleanliness and safety in healthcare facilities. Post-COVID, we have seen an emphasis on initiatives around patient safety and engagement. While our Highlight product has been used to achieve signifi cantly better disinfection quality scores, as a result of COVID, hospitals are now also using Highlight to engage with patients and improve HCAHPS scores,” Kang said.
Protect your staff Staffi ng shortages are very real and plac- ing a continued strain across all healthcare
personnel, said Peter Veloz, Chief Executive Offi cer, UDI. “Products that are simple to train on and use are critical; products that fi t into workfl ow versus disrupting it. Fundamentally, the challenge remains the same; Infection Preventionists and Environmental Services are tasked with ‘doing more with less.’ So, the critical question for manufacturers is for product design to enable effi ciency while still deliv- ering effective performance. The UDI-360 Room Sanitizer can be operated in just a few taps on its large, multilingual, color touchscreen – or remote control – and can disinfect a typical-sized patient room in just 10 minutes,” he said. Labor shortages can cause lapses in proper hand hygiene protocol, said Deborah Chung, North America Marketing Manager, Healthcare, Professional Hygiene, Essity. “According to survey results from a 2021 survey conducted by Essity, 90% of respondents believe that increased clean- ing and sanitizing is important in hospitals and healthcare facilities. Additionally, 84% of respondents reported intending to continue the enhanced hygiene practices they adopted during the pandemic, which provides evidence that boosted hygiene habits developed due to COVID are not going away. This makes access to trainings like the Tork Clean Hands Training, that support hand hygiene compliance, more important than ever.”
Tork Clean Hands
Training from Essity
Protecting staff from infection with proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is also important. Onyx Medical manufac- tures a face shield called Drape-U, to protect wearers from splash exposure.
hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • June 2022 39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
