Editor's Note The Leapfrog Group, on May 3, announced that its new Hospital Safety Grade shows a significant increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiking to a 5-year high and remaining high. Their analysis found that the average: Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) ratio increased 60% Methicillin-resistant…

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Editor's Note This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed. The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure…

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Editor's Note This study from HCA Healthcare, Nashville, Tennessee, finds an increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in patients with COVID-19, but no increase in patients without COVID-19. More than 5 million hospitalizations in 182 hospitals between 2020 and 2022 were included in the analysis. The incidence of HAIs per 100,…

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Editor's Note This investigation by the Kentucky Department for Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of eight cases of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) infections in a Kentucky hospital after total joint replacement procedures found that the presence of a particular OR nurse was significantly associated with the…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Diseas Control and Prevention issued an alert that infections from the fungus Candida auris are increasing, according to a March 23 report from Michigan Medicine. Highlights from the report include: Patients in nursing facilities who have ventilator-associated infections are at increased risk, and ventilators have…

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Protecting patient safety in the OR is everyone’s business. No single group should shoulder the full responsibility for reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In addition to infection preventionists, epidemiologists, and environmental services personnel, it is the duty of everyone involved in patient care to provide an optimal clean and aseptic surgical…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Washington, DC, finds that the COVID-19 pandemic had a differential impact on healthcare associated infections (HAIs) of various types in VA facilities. A total of 128 acute-care and 132 long-term care VA facilities were included in…

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Editor's Note This study led by nurse researchers at the School of Health Professions, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, finds that a disinfection routine measurably reduced surface contamination on mobile phones of ICU nurses. Surface bioburden of personal mobile phones and shared phones of 30 ICU nurses was estimated with…

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Editor's Note This study, by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and California Department of Public Health, finds significant increases in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in California acute-care hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically, central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSIs). The researchers found…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on November 4 posted the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) reported by US hospitals in 2021. The report showed that rates for four of six tracked infections had increased: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) increased 7%, with the largest increase…

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