Keeping Your Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Clean: The Hospital Environment as a Potential Source of Health Care-Associated Infections.

The patient's environment is an important (and often overlooked) source of pathogen exposure for patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. Environmental surfaces in the NICU, including those frequently touched during the course of patient care, may be contaminated with potential pathogens. In this review, we highlight environmental reservoirs that lead to health care-associated infection risks in the NICU environment and provide examples from medical literature. Finally, we provide a few suggested interventions to mitigate these environmental risks in your NICU.