The third Monday may not actually be "the saddest day in the year," but chances are, those of us who made New Years' resolutions may be starting to see some cracks in our willpower right about now. Any change in behavior, from exercising more to, say, washing your hands more, represents a personal struggle of transformation that does not happen easily. In today's post, we'll look at some of the current research on making those resolutions last and apply them to the leading behavioral obstacle that results in healthcare associated infections: Hand hygiene.

Well before the current administration recognized the opioid crisis as a national public health emergency, healthcare workers have been aware of the spike in opioid-related hospitalizations and deaths. Recently, the general public is beginning to learn the shocking statistics: 68% of overdose deaths in 2017 were opioid-related, six times higher than in 1999. On average, 130 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose. In today's post, we examine how this growing crisis has, and will continue to, impact infection control and prevention efforts.

With the new year came a new transparency to health care: The public posting of prices by hospitals across the nation. The idea was to help consumers make better financial choices about their healthcare and motivate hospitals to make prices more competitive. But as hospitals begin to roll out their price lists, what consumers are accessing is not a neat menu of options, but rather a door to a complex, changing world of codes, acronyms, and abbreviations known as The Chargemaster.

The New Year could not be complete without a range of predictions about the 12 months to come. In today's post, we'll bring together five of the leading predictions for healthcare and reflect on their possible impact on hospital infection control.