-
-
The much-feared widespread emergence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has not occurred, with true VRSA still a rare phenomenon. But perhaps the path to this milestone toward a post-antibiotic era will occur in more incremental steps.
-
If hospitals nationwide followed draft recommendations to stockpile flu antivirals to protect health care workers against an influenza pandemic more than 100 million antiviral regimens would be required, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
-
With a matching vaccine not expected to be available for at least five months if and when pandemic influenza hits, hospitals should stockpile flu antivirals to protect their health care workers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends in recently issued draft guidance.
-
A disturbing number of cases of pneumonia caused by staph infections resulted in death among young, otherwise healthy patients during the 2006-2007 flu season, with more than three-quarters caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), researchers found.
-
For the first time, a newly proposed guidance puts a number and a cost to the respirators needed to protect health care workers during an influenza pandemic: 480 respirators at a cost of about $240 to protect a single employee, or a single reusable elastomeric respirator with three filters at a cost of $40 per employee.
-
An aging population and the emergence of a hypervirulent strain are combining to make Clostridium difficile disease a killer. Hospitalizations and deaths from C. diff-associated disease (CDAD) are on the rise in the United States.
-
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators considered several other theories before concluding that improper needle practices and reuse of single-dose vials of propofol likely caused a recent HCV outbreak among patients at a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic.
-
A leading official from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Boston says that the impetus behind its list of hospital-acquired conditions for which it will no longer pay the "bump-up" in the complexity rate is a desire to improve quality of care. Some of the fears expressed by ED experts may be unfounded, he says.
-
In a move that has generated great concern in the ED community, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to more than double the list of hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) for which it will no longer pay hospitals at a higher rate for the resulting increased costs of care.
