Assessing and upgrading the cleanliness of the emergency department brief title: upgrading the emergency room's cleanliness.

Objective: To upgrade cleaning and disinfection of patient rooms in a crowded emergency department (ED).

Setting: Tertiary referral hospital.

Design: Prospective, 3-component, before-and-after intervention study.

How effective are monthly departmental tracer surveys? A 5-year retrospective study of 138 surveys in 96 departments.

Background: Repeat department-wide surveys are commonly employed for infection control. There remains debate concerning their cost-effectivess. The aim of the study was to measure the impact of repeat department-wide surveys in major in-patient departments (IPDs) and ambulatory facilities (AFs) in a tertiary care hospital.

An intervention to control an ICU outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii: long-term impact for the ICU and hospital.

Background: Following a fatal intensive care unit (ICU) outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumanii (CRAB) in 2015, an aggressive infection control intervention was instituted. We outline the intervention and long-term changes in the incidence and prevalence of CRAB.

Methods: The infection control intervention included unit closure (3 days), environmental cleaning, hand hygiene interventions, and environmental culturing.