[Answered]: reply to this post: Infection prevention is a…

reply to this post: Infection prevention is a foundational principle of patient safety, as well as a requirement from various agencies including OSHA, CMS and The Joint Commission (The Joint Commission, 2022). Though several healthcare facilities have infection control programs already established and in use, organizations should still continuously try to improve. Following are three additional practices that any healthcare organization could implement to further reduce the risk of infection transmission: 1. Universal Masking at Entrances During High-Risk Times: Although masking has become less routine since the pandemic, I don’t think it could hurt to re-instate universal masking at entrances during flu season or if there is an active outbreak in the local vicinity. This could effectively reduce the transmission of respiratory infections (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2023). Patients or visitors entering the facility could receive a mask on entry with clear signage explaining the policy and the importance of source control in keeping vulnerable populations safe. 2. UV-C Light Disinfecting Devices for Infection Control in High-Touch Areas: Having UV-C light disinfecting devices in patient rooms, waiting rooms, common areas and on high-touch surfaces, where the pathogens load could be reduced prior to a cleaning protocol in used, can reduce the pathogen load on surfaces. This has been demonstrated to effectively reduce infections when used, in combination with a routine cleaning protocol (Gidari et al., 2022). 3. Real Time Staff Hand Hygiene Monitoring with Electronic Compliance Record: Different than the usual hand hygiene method of staff just trying to remember to w