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I N F E C T I O N
P R E V E N T I O N
there, says Ms. Greene. "Sometimes we assume they're going to know exactly
what to do," she says. Reinforce the directions with the patient's family, if necessary.
Alternatively, she says, you might schedule a patient's morning-of-surgery antiseptic shower at the facility with some degree of supervision. She also suggests
that the directions might be simplified by prescribing the use of 2% CHG cloths
— with which the antiseptic is wiped on after a shower, then allowed to dry
completely — rather than traditional 4% CHG liquid soap. A study has shown
that the cloths deliver as effective a concentration of antiseptic as the liquid
soap does.12
Dr. Morrison even asks whether infection prevention efforts would benefit if
all surgical participants took pre-op CHG showers. "A hand scrub is a timehonored practice. I would merely view this as an extension of that practice,"
he says. "All you're asking them to do is use a different soap in the shower."
Remember, though, that multiple interventions might not let you know for certain which are most effective, says Ms. Greene. "It can be difficult to show that
one intervention has an impact or makes a difference," she says. "There's a difference between quality improvement and research." OSM
E-mail dbernard@outpatientsurgery.net
5. False3, 5, 7-9
6. False2, 5, 10
TO
3. True5
4. True2, 4, 5
SUPPLEMENT
1. True1-5
2. False1, 3, 5-7
7. True4, 11
8. False5, 7
2 6
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M O N T H 2014
