4 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 9
W
e've always known
about the hidden bac-
terial threat in your
OR's anesthesia work area, the
microbes lingering on the anesthe-
sia machine and the pathogens on
the laryngoscope handle that
didn't get a full cleaning between
cases. Then there's the anesthesia
provider's hands — be they bare or
overdue for a fresh pair of gloves
— as they intubate the patient, and
prepare and deliver IV medications.
And yet we're still struggling to
prevent the infections that origi-
nate from that challenging envi-
ronment. Here are 3 takeaways
from The Society for Healthcare
Epidemiology of America's
(SHEA) new guidance (osmag.net/yGWfT5) on infection prevention
in the anesthesia work area.
Hand hygiene
We recommend anesthesia providers follow the World Health
Organization's (WHO) My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene
(osmag.net/7PBqyD): cleaning their hands before touching a patient,
before clean/aseptic procedures, after body fluid exposure/risk, after
1
Anesthesia's Infection Control Challenges
It's time for your providers to clean up their acts — and their workstations.
Anesthesia Alert
L. Silvia Munoz-Price, MD, PhD, and T. Andrew Bowdle, MD, PhD, FASE
• A HIDDEN THREAT The anesthesia computer mouse and
the anesthesia cart are among the most contaminated sur-
faces in the OR.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
