Study: Majority of healthcare workers fail to follow PPE removal rules

A study from the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) found that 85% of healthcare workers fail to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for removing personal protective equipment (PPE). The CDC calls for workers to take off their gloves first before carefully removing gowns from the back and then leaving the patient’s isolation room.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin observed 30 healthcare workers (physicians, nurses, nursing assistants, etc.) entering and leaving patient rooms on five different hospital units in October 2014. Of that group, 17 removed their gowns in the wrong order, 16 wore their PPE out of the room, and 15 did not gently remove their gowns and increased the risk of pathogens being picked up by the workers’ clothes. The CDC guidelines have become more prominent since the Ebola outbreak last year.

Read the AJIC study abstract.