Still, much work needs to be done, says McLay, an infection prevention consultant based in Lexington, Ky., and chair of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epide
miology's communications committee. "The science is out there, but there is a lag between the evidence-based interventions and implementation of those interventions vrithin facuities," she says. "Overall, in the last decade, progress toward eliminating or even reducing health care-associated infections has been very slow, and hospitals are much less safe than they need to be."