NEW FOCUS IN THE NEW YEAR AND BEYOND – ISSUE NO. 31

Has it really been 10 years since the Y2K madness? I remember sitting around with friends and family in our basement waiting for the clock to strike Midnight to see whether everything electronic would continue to function or not. Remarkably, given the hype, everything kept on working without issue. As we all know, news stories are often hyped to promote the sale of newspapers, the visits to web sites or ratings for broadcast media. While the coverage can be excessive and exaggerated, there often is a nugget of truth that should not be ignored. The fact is, many electronics had been designed without consideration of the change to a new millenium and steps to address these issues had to be taken prior to January 1, 2000. This past week we had stories related to MRSA and other contaminants on environmental surfaces. We see these stories every day, not just in the Healthcare media, but in the main stream media as well. It is easy to tune these stories out when they are so frequent and alarmist. But there is a nugget of truth that those of us in Healthcare must pay attention to - inadequately cleaned and disinfected surfaces are a significant source of HAI's. Tools are now available to check these surfaces for residual contaminants and they should be used as part of a complete quality improvement program. From your friends at Healthmark, may you, your collegues and your families have a Very Happy New Year!