On October 30, The Joint Commission (JC) and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) cohosted a webinar focusing on hospital protocols designed to minimize the potential threat posed by Ebola. Speakers included five public health officials from the CDC and The Joint Commission’s Lisa Waldowski, MS, APRN, CIC, an infection control specialist.

The session was introduced by Ana Pujols McKee, MD, Joint Commission executive vice president and chief medical officer. In her introduction, McKee noted that JC surveyors will be placing an emphasis on JC standards related to infection control. “Unfortunately, by the end of this year, as we complete surveys in a third of the 4,000 hospitals we accredit, we will have observed more than 1,600 opportunities where staff failed to wash their hands or observed breaches in high-level disinfection and sterilization. These numbers represent just a fraction of the opportunities for improvement that exist in organizations today.”

The hour-long session concluded with an extensive question-and-answer dialog. An audio-only recording of the webinar is available, along with a copy of the slides (PDF).