PDI, leader in infection prevention education, support and products has launched its new Advanced Skin Antisepsis platform, PDI Prevantics. Under this platform, the company is investing in innovations that provide the most efficient and advanced evidence-based solutions for preventing healthcare associated infections.

PDI, owner of Sani-Hands^® Instant Hand Sanitizing wipes, has announced the launch of new educational packaging to help aid in hand hygiene for patients and education at the bedside. Four educational “when to use” icons have been added to the Sani-Hands Bedside Pack to help healthcare staff communicate critical opportunities for patients to practice hand hygiene¹—after using the bathroom, before eating and drinking, after contact with others and after coughing and sneezing.

DebMed, creator of the world’s first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene,” has released enhanced functionality for the hand hygiene compliance reports that are available in the DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System).

By Susan Carr

The Nov/Dec issue of PSQH included news coverage and commentary about the fungal meningitis outbreak caused in late 2012 by contaminated medications that had been shipped throughout the country by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. In The New England Journal of Medicine, Smith et al. report that as of Dec. 10, 2012, the outbreak resulted in 590 reported cases of infection in 19 states and 37 patient deaths. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, this outbreak is one of the most harmful adverse events ever associated with compounding pharmacies in the United States.

A project to reduce colorectal surgical site infections (SSIs) saved more than $3.7 million in costs for 135 avoided SSIs. The two-and-a-half year project included seven hospitals and was directed by the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons.

DebMed, creator of the world’s first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Five Moments for Hand Hygiene, has announced that Cooley Dickinson Hospital has become the first in the New England region to implement the DebMed^® GMS™ electronic hand hygiene monitoring system.

According to a study published recently, most patients at risk for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) agree that healthcare workers should be reminded to wash their hands, but little more than half would feel comfortable asking their physicians to wash.

Clostridium difficile infections are becoming more common and more severe in hospitalized children and the elderly, in large part due to greater use of antibiotics, Mayo Clinic researchers report in studies being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting.

A major three-year trial led by researchers at UCL, in partnership with the Health Protection Agency, has shown that giving one-to-one feedback to healthcare workers makes them twice as likely to clean their hands or use soap.

CIVCO Medical Solutions expands its line of infection-prevention products with the new latex-free hand-carried system drape.