Requiem for reuse of single-use and reusable devices?

To the Editor: Dissemination of timely data to a hospital community can be a daunting task. Healthcare workers working various schedules across three shifts per day, 7 days per week; large numbers of part-time and outside agency staff; lack of mailboxes; and inability to schedule regular meetings create a challenge to providing up-to-date information. It is especially difficult in the operating room environment. Our Infection Control Committee is responsible for distributing data, including various surgical-site infection rates, the impact of recent intervention on these rates, changes in antimicrobial prophylaxis in the operating room, and other relevant trends involving healthcare workers and positive surgical patients. As an additional method to reach the operating room staff beyond meetings and providing documents to be read at home, singlepage charts on brightly colored paper are laminated and placed in the operating room lunchroom. These "placemats" are quickly read by all of the operating room staff, irrespective of their schedule, while eating or chatting. To keep these missives timely, the mats are removed after 7 to 10 days. This technique has been extremely successful in reaching this remote group. A second innovative method for distribution of important, time-sensitive information is the use of picture mouse pads. These pads have a clear flap under which charts or reports can be inserted. Given the ubiquitous presence of computers throughout the hospital, placing infection control data in the mouse pads provides an easy and effective method to reach house staff, attending physicians, and nurses who regularly provide clinical services to patients. We placed our most recent critical care antibiogram in the mouse pads. This is an extremely effective method to reach our target audience and the information can easily be changed with little cost or effort.