A recent GP PRO survey has identified preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) as a top financial priority for acute and post-acute healthcare providers.

GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, manufactures and sells well-known brands like ActiveAire, Angel Soft Professional Series, Brawny, Compact, Dixie, Dixie Ultra, enMotion, and Pacific Blue. Its products are used in restrooms, foodservice areas and break rooms in office buildings, health care, foodservice businesses, high-traffic, lodging, retail, and education facilities.

The survey found that one-quarter of respondents viewed HAIs as a significant financial issue. Eighty-four percent said that the number of these infections has somewhat or significantly increased since the onset of Covid. Thirty-nine percent said preventing HAIs is worth investing more than they current do. These further investments would include high quality hand hygiene products, proper personal protective equipment, touchless restroom dispensers, and easily accessible hand hygiene stations for staff and visitors.

Additionally, 91 percent of respondents believed collaboration between infection preventionists and environmental services departments is important in lowering HAI rates.

“The vast majority of healthcare providers acknowledge that HAIs continue to increase, and nearly all of our survey respondents put preventing HAIs as a top three priority, but the cost of preventing them is creating a real financial reckoning for them,” said Ashley Butler, GP PRO vice president and general pf skincare.

“As a provider of hand hygiene solutions for healthcare, it is incumbent on us and other industry leaders to create a viable path forward for infection preventionists to cost-effectively address what has become, in my opinion, a healthcare crisis.”

View the complete survey here.

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