Frequency of hand hygiene opportunities in patients on a general surgery service.

Background: Some electronic hand hygiene (HH) monitoring systems require a benchmark of HH opportunities. To establish a benchmark, we measured rates of HH opportunities among general surgery patients at a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: Trained observers recorded HH opportunities for newly admitted patients daily for up to 5 days.

Unit-Specific Rates of Hand Hygiene Opportunities in an Acute-Care Hospital.

OBJECTIVE To explore the frequency of hand hygiene opportunities (HHOs) in multiple units of an acute-care hospital. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING The adult intensive care unit (ICU), medical and surgical step-down units, medical and surgical units, and the postpartum mother-baby unit (MBU) of an academic acute-care hospital during May-August 2013, May-July 2014, and June-August 2015.

Risk Factors for Bacteremia in Patients With Urinary Catheter-Associated Bacteriuria.

Background: Catheter-associated bacteriuria is complicated by secondary bacteremia in 0.4% to 4.0% of cases.

Challenges in implementing electronic hand hygiene monitoring systems.

Electronic hand hygiene (HH) monitoring systems offer the exciting prospect of a more precise, less biased measure of HH performance than direct observation. However, electronic systems are challenging to implement. Selecting a system that minimizes disruption to the physical infrastructure and to clinician workflow, and that fits with the organization's culture and budget, is challenging.

Risk Factors for Nosocomial Bacteremia Secondary to Urinary Catheter-Associated Bacteriuria: A Systematic Review.

A systematic appraisal of evidence suggests that male patients in hospital may be at higher risk for bacteremia following urinary catheter-associated bacteriuria than females. Other risk factors include immunosuppressant medication, red blood cell transfusion, neutropenia, malignancy, and liver disease.

Implementation and impact of an automated group monitoring and feedback system to promote hand hygiene among health care personnel.

Background: Despite substantial evidence to support the effectiveness of hand hygiene for preventing health care-associated infections, hand hygiene practice is often inadequate. Hand hygiene product dispensers that can electronically capture hand hygiene events have the potential to improve hand hygiene performance. A study on an automated group monitoring and feedback system was implemented from January 2012 through March 2013 at a 140-bed community hospital.

Translating infection control guidelines into practice: implementation process within a health care institution.

Health-care-associated infections (HAIs) remain a major patient safety problem even as policy and programmatic efforts designed to reduce HAIs have increased. Although information on implementing effective infection control (IC) efforts has steadily grown, knowledge gaps remain regarding the organizational elements that improve bedside practice and accommodate variations in clinical care settings. We conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews in 11 hospitals across the United States with a range of hospital personnel involved in IC (n = 116).

Status of the implementation of the World Health Organization multimodal hand hygiene strategy in United States of America health care facilities.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a multimodal strategy and campaign in 2009 to improve hand hygiene practices worldwide. Our objective was to evaluate the implementation of the strategy in United States health care facilities.

Methods: From July through December 2011, US facilities participating in the WHO global campaign were invited to complete the Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework online, a validated tool based on the WHO multimodal strategy.

Personal and household hygiene, environmental contamination, and health in undergraduate residence halls in New York City, 2011.

Background: While several studies have documented the importance of hand washing in the university setting, the added role of environmental hygiene remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to characterize the personal and environmental hygiene habits of college students, define the determinants of hygiene in this population, and assess the relationship between reported hygiene behaviors, environmental contamination, and health status.

Methods: 501 undergraduate students completed a previously validated survey assessing baseline demographics, hygiene habits, determinants of hygiene, and health status.

Tensions inherent in the evolving role of the infection preventionist.

Background: The role of infection preventionists (IPs) is expanding in response to demands for quality and transparency in health care. Practice analyses and survey research have demonstrated that IPs spend a majority of their time on surveillance and are increasingly responsible for prevention activities and management; however, deeper qualitative aspects of the IP role have rarely been explored.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative content analysis of in-depth interviews with 19 IPs at hospitals throughout the United States to describe the current IP role, specifically the ways that IPs effect improvements and the facilitators and barriers they face.

Determinants of personal and household hygiene among college students in New York City, 2011.

Background: Although several studies have characterized the hygiene habits of college students, few have assessed the determinants underlying such behaviors.

Objectives: Our study sought to describe students' knowledge, practices, and beliefs about hygiene and determine whether there is an association between reported behaviors and frequency of illness.

Methods: A sample of 299 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing demographics, personal and household hygiene behaviors, beliefs and knowledge about hygiene, and general health status.

Adoption of policies to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections in United States intensive care units.

Background: Little is known about whether recommended strategies to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) are being implemented in intensive care units (ICU) in the United States.

Objectives: Our objectives were to describe the presence of and adherence to CAUTI prevention policies in ICUs, to identify variations in policies based on organizational characteristics, and to determine whether a relationship exists between prevention policies and CAUTI incidence rates.

Methods: Four hundred forty-one hospitals that participate in the National Healthcare Safety Network were surveyed in spring 2008.

Exploring infection prevention: policy implications from a qualitative study.

Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are common and costly patient safety problems that are largely preventable. As a result, numerous policy changes have recently taken place including mandatory reporting and lack of reimbursement for HAIs. A qualitative approach was used to obtain dense description and gain insights about the current practice of infection prevention in California.

Guidelines to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection: 1980 to 2010.

Objectives: We set out to review and compare guidelines to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), examine the association between recent federal initiatives and CAUTI guidelines, and recommend practices for preventing CAUTI that are associated with strong evidence and are consistent across guidelines.

Background: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the most common healthcare-associated infection, and a cause of significant morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients.

Methods: A search of the English-language literature for guidelines in the prevention of adult CAUTI, published between 1980 and 2010, was conducted in Medline and the National Guideline Clearinghouse.

Targeted surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and its potential use to guide empiric antibiotic therapy.

The present study aimed to determine the frequency of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-positive clinical culture among hospitalized adults in different risk categories of a targeted MRSA active surveillance screening program and to assess the utility of screening in guiding empiric antibiotic therapy. We completed a prospective cohort study in which all adults admitted to non-intensive-care-unit locations who had no history of MRSA colonization or infection received targeted screening for MRSA colonization upon hospital admission. Anterior nares swab specimens were obtained from all high-risk patients, defined as those who self-reported admission to a health care facility within the previous 12 months or who had an active skin infection on admission.