6 6 • 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 Y 2 0 1 9
You were the lead author of the Society for Healthcare
Epidemiology of America's new guidance on infection
control in anesthesia work areas.
Why were those recommendations necessary?
Members of the surgical team who work at the
table are meticulous about using proper sterile
technique, but additional staffers, including anes-
thesia providers, who don't have direct contact
with the surgical site sometimes exhibit the com-
plete opposite behavior. It's difficult, but critically
important, for anesthesia providers to maintain a
clean workspace and do their part to reduce infec-
tion risks.
What's the biggest infection control challenge
among anesthesia providers?
Providers don't always clean their hands between
cases and tend to wear a single pair of gloves for long
periods of time as they touch patients, equipment, sur-
faces, medications and IV hubs. If providers don't follow
proper hand hygiene practices, their work areas and the
supplies they use become contaminated. That wouldn't be
an issue if work stations and ORs were properly cleaned
between cases, but that's not always the case.
old Anesthesia Providers
Accountable in the Battle Against SSIs
H
Silvia Munoz-Price, MD, PhD
Infectious disease specialist and proponent of proper infection control practices
