In response to ongoing measles outbreaks due to imported cases, the Centers for Disease and Prevention issued an April 2, 2008, health advisory that includes the following key points:
Clostridium difficile which has caused a series of severe hospital outbreaks and unexplained community cases due in part to the emergence of a hypervirulent new epidemic strain (NAP1) is the subject of a landmark prevalence study.
If an influenza pandemic strikes, public health officials may not know enough about influenza transmission and respiratory protection to adequately protect health care workers.
Casserly and colleagues administered a case-based questionnaire to physician and nursing staffs at 2 large teaching hospitals in Ireland, to determine their knowledge and experience with respect to a common and potentially deadly event in mechanically ventilated patients with fresh tracheostomies: dislodgement of the tube from the airway during vigorous coughing.
Despite the large role that vasopressors play in the management of septic shock, an unfortunately common problem associated with high mortality, few data exist to support using one vasopressor regimen over another.
This study from the department of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis sought to determine the effect on extubation and reintubation rates of implementing a mandatory daily spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) in every qualifying ventilated patient and reporting its results to the physicians managing that patient.
This study reports findings from a survey of 1,082 US physicians (62% response rate) regarding their attitudes about reporting medical errors and suggestions for ways to prevent common errors.
Regionalized health care systems exist for trauma and neonatal care and efforts are underway to institute similar systems for high-risk surgeries, three fields in which there is a positive relationship between the volume of cases handled and patient outcomes.
