Guidelines for reducing pathogens in veterinary hospitals: disinfectant selection, cleaning protocols, and hand hygiene.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in the hospital setting. Organisms that cause hospital-acquired infections are generally highly resistant, requiring expensive antibiotics and further hospitalization. As a result, many owners of infected pets choose euthanasia. Appropriate hospital disinfection and staff hygiene practices can prevent such infections by reducing the pathogen load in a facility in accordance with the "nosocomial prevention triad"-appropriate antibiotic usage, staff and patient hygiene, and hospital maintenance and disinfection. This review outlines the development and implementation of hospital disinfection protocols and hand hygiene practices in small animal veterinary hospitals.