Katrina Crist, MBA
Author – Katrina Crist, MBA
CEO of APIC
International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW), which takes place October 14-20, asks all of us to imagine a safer world through infection prevention. Imagine a healthcare setting where everyone performs appropriate hand hygiene before and after providing patient care. Or a community where every individual uses proper respiratory etiquette by coughing and sneezing into their elbow. Imagine the impact on a global level.
Led by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), IIPW provides a focal point for infection preventionists, healthcare professionals, consumers, organizations, and industry partners to shine a light on infection prevention and its power to save lives.
IIPW seeks to galvanize an infection prevention movement at the grassroots level, and we invite you to join with us.
To jumpstart your involvement, APIC has launched a new website with resources and template materials, and a Facebook page to help promote activation around IIPW. The website places special emphasis on the active role consumers can play and outlines three simple steps to engage patients in their care.
New “Infection Prevention & You” materials help patients ask questions about their care and stay safe from infection in the hospital, an ambulatory care facility, long-term care facility, or while receiving healthcare services in their home. We encourage you to share these new materials.
The Department of Health and Human Services, APIC, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America have collaborated on the first “Partnership in Prevention Award” to recognize one exemplary hospital that has achieved sustainable reductions in healthcare-associated infections. The award will be presented on October 15, during IIPW, via a webinar. Registration for the webinar is limited to the first 1,000 individuals who sign up, so we encourage early registration to ensure a spot. Visit the IIPW website for information about other educational opportunities.
Partner organizations, states, and industry champions have pledged their support for IIPW. What are you doing to promote infection prevention? Share your stories by sending them to iipw@apic.org.
Infection prevention is everyone’s business. Together we can achieve more than any of us working separately. Join the infection prevention movement to create changes that will save lives!
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November 1, 2012 at 4:36 pm ET - Christine Besson
Hi, writing to you from Montréal Québec, as member of an association called ADVIN – association for the victimes of nosocomial infections (hospital-acquired) – we promote hand hygiene with an event that you may watch by visiting http://g-ouache.blogspot.ca/
In most Québec hospitals, hand hygiene is poor averaging less than 40% – we know for example that one of our major hospital has a 24% hand hygiene compliance. We had our event in many hospitals and noticed one shocking aspect: over 50% of all nurses wear more than one ring! And those participating in our event did not at all seem embarrassed by that fact.
Cordialement
Christine
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October 25, 2012 at 9:56 pm ET - BNicole
Promoting hand hygiene is very critical in our society; this includes the community and healthcare setting. Improper hand hygiene can lead to hospital acquired infections, which are infections that are developed during the patient’s inpatient visit and are preventable. Since October 2008, CMS has not reimbursed hospitals for any secondary condition that was not presented on admission. Although, CMS does pay for these secondary conditions, according to data it has not eliminated hospital acquired infections. Because of this, healthcare institutions need to hold their healthcare professionals accountable for improper hand washing. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research believes the infection numbers will decrease by imposing a one percent Medicare penalty starting in 2015 for hospitals with high infection rates. In my opinion, although health care institutions will have to take accountability for these hospital acquired infections, the one percent penalty probably will not decrease the numbers dramatically. This improvement is a process and has to be reinforced daily.
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