INFECTION PREVENTION
Return to best practices 2023 Infection Prevention Resource Guide by Janette Wider
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ospitals are facing more pressures than ever before. Staffing shortages and razor-thin operating margins are two major areas of struggle, yet infection prevention still remains a critical area of focus. The key to overcoming these struggles and keeping infection prevention a top priority, according to industry experts, is a return to best practices and continued education. Doe Kley, MPH, RN, CIC, LTC-CIP, T-CHEST, principal infection preventionist for The Clorox Company, said, “With a rise in both emerging pathogens and hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), the importance of infection prevention and control measures is more relevant than ever. For the past three years, attention and resources have been singularly focused on COVID-19, but as we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, it’s apparent that we need to get back to a horizontal approach to infection prevention, such as ensuring the implementation of practices and products that will do the greatest good for the great- est number—in other words, is effective against most threats.”
H Doe Kley 18 June 2023 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
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Alice Brewer, MPH, CIC, CPHQ, FAPIC, Senior Director of Clinical Affairs, PDI, agrees, she said, “COVID kind of clouded our view of all the things that could go wrong or all the problems in healthcare. The public health emergency has ended, but there are still so many things that we need to think about and worry about. Candida auris has been a huge issue. And it was a big issue before the pandemic. I remember listening to some talks about that in 2018 and 2019, and thinking ‘Oh no, this is going be a big problem.’ So that’s certainly still a big issue—causing a lot of infections and causing a lot of problems in terms of iden- tifying it and treating it. And unfortunately, during the pandemic, we actually saw a spike in some infections. CLABSI [Central Line-associated Bloodstream Infection] actually went up about 50% during the pandemic. We were doing everything that we could to keep patients safe and treat COVID patients at this time—I’ve been referring to it as kind of guerilla warfare. And so, we slipped on some of the best practices that we know should
Alice Brewer
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