Environmental Contamination and the Pig Pen Principle: Why We Wash our Hands and Wash our Patients!
Organisms of concern, including multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs) are an increasing threat to vulnerable patients and residents in health care settings. The healthcare worker hands, the environment and the resident are important MDRO reservoirs. These are all important to manage properly to reduce transmission in the healthcare environment. This lecture will illustrate the importance of maintaining good hand hygiene, including hand discipline and hand situational awareness. The environment plays an important role as a reservoir of MDROs. Important aspects of reducing the environmental contribution to MDRO transmission is reviewed. The role of patient/resident as MDRO reservoir and their mobility between health care settings will also be explored. Many studies have looking at various methods of MDRO de-colonization or burden reduction within the host. Chlorhexidine Gluconate bathing has shown to reduce and/or eliminate skin surface MDRO colonization with a reduction in subsequent infections.
