Associations between bacterial contamination of health care workers' hands and contamination of white coats and scrubs.

Background: Uniforms are potential reservoirs for hospital organisms, potentially reinfecting the hands of health care workers (HCWs). The study aimed to determine the association between the bacterial contamination of HCWs' hands and uniforms (white coats and scrubs).

Methods: HCWs working in 5 intensive care units had cultures obtained from their hands and uniforms (white coats or scrubs).

Decreasing operating room environmental pathogen contamination through improved cleaning practice.

Objective: Potential transmission of organisms from the environment to patients is a concern, especially in enclosed settings, such as operating rooms, in which there are multiple and frequent contacts between patients, provider's hands, and environmental surfaces. Therefore, adequate disinfection of operating rooms is essential. We aimed to determine the change in both the thoroughness of environmental cleaning and the proportion of environmental surfaces within operating rooms from which pathogenic organisms were recovered.

Use of UV powder for surveillance to improve environmental cleaning.

Commercially available UV powder was applied weekly to high-risk objects within patient rooms and inspected after 48 hours. We found a baseline cleaning rate of 41.8% that increased up to 80% (P < .