Welcome to the first episode of Infection Prevention Spotlight, a podcast by Kara Mullane, RN, MSN, CIC to shine a spotlight on all areas of Infection Prevention and give a voice to the Infection Preventionist. Kara talks about her inspiration for the podcast and Infection prevention, and her plans for creating a place where Infection Preventionists and all individuals responsible for keeping patients and staff safe from transmissible diseases can come together to hear the latest and greatest, voice frustrations, and learn from each other on our journey to zero healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Subscribe to the show for lots more to come!
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Each year 1.7 million Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) occur that contribute to 99,000 deaths and $20 billion in healthcare costs. What makes these numbers even more tragic is that 70 percent of all the HAIs are PREVENTABLE!Infection Prevent Spotlight was created by an Infection Preventionist (IP) certified in Infection Control (CIC) for other IPs and everyone else responsible for keeping patients safe from harm. It's hard for IPs to be responsible for reducing HAIs (CLABSIs, CAUTIs, SSIs, MDROs (C.diff, MRSA, VRE, CRE)) and the harm and deaths they cause as well as the financial costs of these results on Medicare reimbursement and public reporting. As an IP I understand this and that's why I've created this podcast. I wanted to make a safe place to talk about these challenges, understand the emerging issues, share the newest best practices and current research, and to be a place where IPs could support each other in our journey to zero Harm. Infection Prevention and Control spans multiple areas: hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient surgery centers, dialysis centers, ambulance companies / emergency management, schools, and even our homes. My hope is that Infection Prevention Spotlight will provide you with the motivation, knowledge, and quick tips to take back to your team, facility, for your own journey where ever it may be and prevent HAIs by engaging, communicating, leading, demonstrating, reviewing, and teaching about: hand hygiene (HH) |hand washing; indwelling catheters; central venous catheters; surgical procedures; isolation procedures / isolation precautions (Contact, Droplet, Airborne); Standard precautions; hospital leadership, IP systems and staff training; personal protective equipment; environmental services; linen / laundry; Reprocessing of non-critical equipment, semi-critical equipment (high-level disinfection), reusable critical equipment/instruments/devices (sterilization); ventilator / respiratory therapy; environmental disinfection / cleaning; antibiotic stewardship; performance improvement; and Survey Readiness. We are stronger together, let’s make it to zero and save lives.