Surveyors continue to see clinicians failing to perform hand hygiene before and after patient contact or after touching potentially contaminated surfaces, according to the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC).
 
Inconsistent availability of appropriate hand-washing supplies can also lead to citations, notes ACHC survey operations manager Becky Tolson in a recent blog post. Examples include using a patient’s bar soap and cloth bath towel rather than liquid soap and paper towels or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
 
Tolson notes that other frequently observed infection control breaches include:  
  • Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE): Common findings include failure to wear gloves (e.g., during wound care), absence of masks during respiratory procedures or incorrect donning and doffing of PPE.
  • Incorrect bag technique: How clinicians manage their bag of supplies and equipment — placement, use of necessary barriers, disinfection of multiuse items like blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, and thermometers — relates directly to infection prevention.
  • Wound care: Expired supplies, incorrect or missed dressing changes and lack of proper technique for wound care often trigger citations.
  • Improper handling of sharps: Surveyors check that clinicians follow safe injection practices for single-use items, disposal of sharps in approved containers and relevant safety education for patients when sharps are used in the home.