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Federal regulators continue to make it clear that they are serious about patients' right to freedom of choice of providers, says Elizabeth E. Hogue, Esq., a Burtonsville, MD-based attorney specializing in health care issues.
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Five percent of patients treated in U.S. hospitals for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) die from the infection, says a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality.
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A movement toward "zero tolerance" for hospital-acquired infections is gathering steam. "I am a true supporter of that goal, but we have to figure out if that is a realistic goal," says Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH, chief hospital epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.
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Home health nurses face a substantial risk of sharps injuries but often do not get prompt follow-up, according to a study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
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Who will receive the first precious doses of vaccine to protect against an emerging pandemic influenza strain?
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Hospitals need to make a huge new investment in antiviral medications to protect their workers from pandemic influenza, according to new draft recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prophylaxis could cost an individual hospital more than $125,000.
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Two hundred eighty-eight patients hospitalized with severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) were followed for 28 days in a prospective multicenter study.
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Weight gain has long been used as a marker of fluid retention in heart failure patients. It is a cheap, simple test that can be performed daily in patients' homes.
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This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial demonstrates that administration of erythropoietin once a week for three weeks does not reduce the incidence of red blood cell transfusion in a mixed population of critically ill patients but is associated with an increased incidence of thrombotic events and a possible decrease in mortality in trauma patients.