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The Joint Commission is adding a new infection control standard for health care facilities that requires them to prepare for an influx of infectious patients. As part of emergency management activities, institutions must prepare for such an influx or the risk of an influx effective Jan. 1, 2005.
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Be proactive and get ready for an onslaught of questions from critical inquiries to the out-of-the-blue variety if youre preparing for a visit from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, advise two infection control professionals who recently went through the process.
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These are the criteria used by Salina (KS) Regional Medical Center when the hospital evaluated ceiling lift systems.
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Ceiling lifts save backs. That is what Salina (KS) Regional Medical Center concluded, and the investment paid off.
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Worried that the future clout of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is in jeopardy, occupational health advocates are pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to alter its reorganization plans.
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While much of the country struggles to comply with the new requirement for annual fit-testing of N95 filtering facepiece respirators used to protect against tuberculosis, hospitals in Washington state have some advice: Powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are an important tool in decreasing the burden of fit-testing, employee health and safety professionals say. They have had many years to learn that lesson. Based on a rule of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries in Olympia, they have conducted annual fit-tests since 1995.
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In light of the recent rabies outbreak due to transplant of infected organs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reiterating that exposure to feces, urine, blood, or other body fluids is not considered a risk for rabies transmission. The rabies virus cannot survive on surfaces in the environment for any substantial period of time.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions new draft guidelines for patient isolation have been criticized for not being aggressive enough in identifying and eradicating patient reservoirs of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). However, the guidelines include a section on enhanced surveillance and infection control measures for ICPs who want to ratchet up their efforts against MDROs.
