Insights & News in Healthcare Safety

Drug Diversion and Infection Prevention: When the Needle Hits the Vein

Longtime infection prevention leaders likely remember the story of David Kwiatkowski—a healthcare worker whose drug diversion activities put thousands of patients at risk of hepatitis C infection. ...

What Hospitals Need to Know: Using Water During Processing of Medical Devices

Every day, hospitals’ central sterile processing teams rely on water as they clean and sterilize a variety of medical devices. In this blog, ECRI outlines general considerations to support safe and...

The Insidious Dangers of Disposable Isolation Gowns—and How to Address Them

Isolation gowns are a longstanding infection control tool across hospital settings. These garments are intended to safeguard patients and clinicians by preventing the spread of disease-causing micr...

Could Natural Language Processing Help Close Gaps in Infection Prevention and Patient Safety Events?

Natural language processing (NLP) is an increasingly ubiquitous form of artificial intelligence (AI). Best described as where computer science meets linguistics, it uses computational linguistics a...

How To: Safe Administration of Vaccines

​​​​​​​​Vaccinations are an important tool for building immunity to prevent illness, disability, and death resulting from infectious diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preve...

Candida Auris Cases Are on the Rise. How Can Infection Prevention Respond?

​​​​​​​​Candida auris (C. auris)—an emerging fungus considered an urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat—is on the rise in the United States. According to Centers for Disease Control and Preve...

Hand Hygiene: Fundamentals to Prevent HAIs

​​​​​​​​Proper hand hygiene by healthcare workers is considered to be one of the most important practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) (CDC "Guideline for Hand Hygiene"). ...