Chlorhexidine Gluconate Bathing Program to Reduce Health Care-Associated Infections in Both Critically Ill and Non-Critically Ill Patients.

Background: Critical care nurses take care of patients with complicated, comorbid, and compromised conditions. These patients are at risk for health care-associated infections, which affect patients' lives and health care systems in various ways.

Objective: To gauge the impact of routinely bathing patients with 4% chlorhexidine gluconate solution on the incidence of health care-associated infections in a medical-surgical intensive care unit and a postoperative telemetry unit; to outline the framework for a hospital-wide presurgical chlorhexidine gluconate bathing program and share the results.