High level of sanitation vital to patient safety and to lowering readmissions and morbidity A shocking story published in the Wall Street Journal* last month is enough to make your skin crawl. No, it wasn’t an article about substandard medical practices in remote third-world nations. It was about unsafe injection practices, improper medication preparation and the re-use of single-dose vials and needles right here in the U.S. Just when you thought those days were gone. The article serves as a reminder for healthcare employers and professionals to maintain a high level of hygiene and sanitation in all aspects of practice. Sadly, the thousands of patients who were potentially exposed to Hepatitis B, C, HIV and other serious infectious diseases in the article didn’t have to be. All that was required was for caregivers to acknowledge what one commentary referred to as ‘sterile techniques 101’: Don’t use needles twice, single-dose vials are just that – single dose; and always prepare injection medications in a sterilized environment. Though much has been done at the regulatory level over the past decade to improve safe medical practices in hospitals - outpatient clinics, as indicated the spate of cases [+]