A compendium of awesomeness

Posting has been light this month, for several good reasons. My own schedule has been full with seeing patients, attending HICPAC, and most recently riding a bike across northwest Iowa during the first couple days of RAGBRAI with my mom (the route this year went through her hometown of Hull, Iowa). The photo above was taken on Sunday during a stop in beautiful Boyden, Iowa. 

I’m back at work now, and marveling at the complete online release of the SHEA/IDSA Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Associate Infections. The Google tells me that a compendium is “a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject”. This compendium is about HAI prevention, and it is required reading for anyone in the field. I could go on at length about the work that went into this practical guide to prevention, but suffice it to say that it makes me very proud to be a SHEA member. For those not yet familiar with the compendium, I’d suggest starting with this introduction, which describes the approach, the key contributors and the partner and sponsoring societies. Then read the executive summary, and the infection prevention viewpoint. Finally, refer to the individual documents for more detailed information. They make great beach reading!