3M Health Care, the healthcare division of 3M India and a diversified technology driven company known for its innovative products and solutions, organized a speaker programme on "Controlling Contamination in the Sterile Field" in Bangalore on January 24. This comes in wake of the huge need for personal protection against infections not only for the patients but the hospital staff as well, a cause that 3M strongly propagates.

Infection prevention is of prime importance in every healthcare facility, including public and government institutes, nursing homes and corporate hospitals. Currently, the biggest challenge faced by the hospitals in India as far as infection control is concerned, is the ability to adequately provide knowledge updates on an ongoing basis as turn around of nursing staff in high.

Greg Skorczewski, Asepsis Specialist 3M Medical division, St Paul, USA said, "World over, it is important to prevent Surgical Site Infection in a hospital and personal protection is as important for the medical staff as much as it is for the patients. Quality improvement initiatives being followed in the United States are relevant to India too. This will be useful to all hospital administrators, physicians and other professionals.

3M also does a lot of education programs in hospitals to facilitate higher standards in patient care and Infection prevention like importance of proper instrument cleaning; I.V site management; importance of draping and importance of sterilization monitoring. As emphasis on infection control increases, newer practices and technologies will be explored to ensure safer patient outcomes. Though these solutions are sought at minimum costs, cost is not of primary importance. Many of the infection prevention practices only require stringent compliance and may not involve costly equipment. A step ahead would be to adhere to standard internationally approved practices and products for infection prevention.