Patient Safety | 03.14.23
Stop Infections in Their Tracks: Water-Free Care in the ICU
by Infection Control Today
Patient rooms with sink drains have a higher load of bacterial pathogens. Sinks can be a reservoir for gram-negative bacteria and facilitate colonization and infection of patients, especially in the ICU. Patients in the ICU are at high risk for health care–acquired infections because of the high prevalence of invasive procedures and devices and their induced immunosuppression, frailty, and increased age. Implementing a water-free environment in the ICU can be an innovative way for hospitals to remove threatening microbial exposure from splashes, aerosols, and contaminated water. Infection control and prevention is “always a multimodal intervention,” noted Joost Hopman, medical director at Radboud University Medical Center, citing among other things the “complicated onboarding process. . . . It’s something we did together with the intensive care doctors and intensive care nurses in conjunction with the infection prevention and control teams. You cannot do this on your own. It has to be a team effort.”
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