There is an increasingly strong rationale for going “water free” (or at least “water lite”) in our delivery of critical care to reduce the risk of antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative infections. But it’s a challenging concept in quite a few ways. In fact, when I’ve suggested it in the past, there has been a palpable gasp and quite a few objections raised! So I was struck by a recent JHI study exploring barriers to implementing water free care.
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COVID-19 Preparedness Survey
After discussions on IPC measures for COVID-19, some members of ISAC’s IPC working group decided to created a survey. The group would very much appreciate your participation:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/COVID-19_IPC
Thanks for your help
Navigating guidelines for MDR-GNR
There’s a plethora of guidelines for MDR-GNR. But how do we choose between them? And how do we implement them effectively in our hospitals? I did a talk on this recently in London, here:
Infection prevention and control practices for CPE in Ontario, Canada – are we doing enough?
We’re delighted to have this guest post from Dr Alainna Jamal (bio below)…
Hello from Canada! In this blog post, I’ll reflect on findings from a study by our group (the Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network), published in this month’s issue of Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol.
Hand hygiene and the courage to challenge: a personal reflection
Allow me to set the scene: I was visiting an elderly relative in an NHS hospital recently (they would deny being elderly – but I’m afraid it is now true). I witnessed a healthcare worker moving efficiently from bed to bed examining each patient (including direct patient contact) to take observations without any hand hygiene between patients and without decontamination of the reusable blood-pressure cuff. I explained to my relative the need to challenge this behaviour. My relative asked – almost pleaded with me – not to intervene saying “you’ll clear off and they’ll be left caring for me overnight”. So, did I have the courage to defy my relative and challenge this behaviour?
Evaluating the CPE Toolkit
A research group at Bristol in collaboration with PHE have just published an evaluation of the CPE Toolkit. I don’t think any of the findings are especially surprising, confirm that the Toolkit is not implementable in acute NHS hospitals, but provides useful information and guidance to build a local CPE policy.
Nine decades of antibiotics: a story with two endings…
I did a talk today in Portugal covering the nine decades since Fleming discovered the effects of Penicillium sp. in 1928. I thought it would be interesting to have two endings to the talk: an upbeat one, and a doomsday one.
Cleaning and disinfection survey
See below details of a survey that you may find interesting to complete. I had a small role in providing some feedback on an earlier version of this survey and I hope it will serve to highlight areas that require more thought and / or research…
On behalf of the International Society of Chemotherapy (ISC) working group on Infection Prevention we would be grateful if you could complete this anonymous survey.
Survey: infection prevention practices for VRE
Guest post from Prof Dale Fisher (bio below). Please help Dale out by completing this survey. I found it interesting (and more importantly, quick)…
Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 