-
In an effort to help health care organizations implement or enhance tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination programs for patients and health care workers, The Joint Commission is preparing a monograph based on real-world clinical practice.
-
When staff at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) began working on reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia rates, they armed themselves with more than a bundle. The work was informed by the theory of high reliability how to make progress and how to sustain improvements.
-
Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections are becoming more prevalent in certain populations, particularly the HIV infected and intravenous drug users, researchers are finding.
-
It sometimes seems, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that everybody talks about infection prevention but nobody does anything about it. Well, give the glory to the environmental services team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Rochester, MN. Talk about a hands-on intervention.
-
Editor's note: In this issue we conclude our two-part series on the national epidemic of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) with a look at current issues and controversies surrounding testing, discontinuing isolation and environmental cleaning.
-
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's request for information (RFI) for possible regulatory action on infectious disease risk to health care workers includes the following key points:
-
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics in London has set up what that organization terms a working party to study the issue of whether the UK can ethically increase organ or tissue donation by offering incentives.
-
Online social networking sites have fans ranging from the very young to the very old. Some physicians, including psychiatrists, are not immune to a curious peek into the lives of their patients or at least what they can find online but is that a line that should be crossed in the physician-patient relationship?
-
A study of the roles and responsibilities of patients and their proxies has implications today for hospital ethics committees and associated consult services, particularly with regard to the weight given to the voice of the proxy, according to "Contracts, Covenants and Advance Care Planning: An Empirical Study of the Moral Obligations of Patient and Proxy."
-
A registry that serves as a collection point for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment known as POLST forms has collected forms from about 18,000 people in Oregon since the registry went live Dec. 3, 2009, according to Susan Tolle, MD, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, OR, and who leads registry educational efforts.