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INFECTION PREVENTION
ment that we can keep the ORs warmed for the first 30 minutes of
procedures, before dropping the temps for their comfort.
3
Standardize the chlorhexidine skin preparation. The many medical
students who rotate through our institution were sometimes
allowed to perform the skin prep. Some might use 1 chlorhexidine stick,
some might use 2. And the nurses in the OR followed suit, with haphazard practice. We re-educated the nurses and surgeons who work on colorectal surgery to use 2 prep sticks, and with uniform methods and contact times. Afterward, surgeons and nurses who'd been retrained were
validated on their ability to correctly perform skin preps — and they're
