Hospital Infection Control & Prevention – June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

• What’s in your water? Waterborne bugs can cause fatal infections

  The water of life can sometimes mean death. Fatal infections can result if immune compromised patients are exposed to pathogenic bacteria that thrive in water systems.

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• Researchers find norovirus may spread by airborne route, are current precautions enough?

  Nasty bug norovirus may transmit through the air, meaning currently recommended infection precautions may not be enough

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• Lower nurse-patient ratios could cut infections, but hospitals say mandates could crash budgets

  A flurry of state and national efforts to mandate safer nurse-to-patient ratios in healthcare could result in both lower infection rates and improved employee health.

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• C. difficile and antibiotic stewardship programs

  CMS regulation requiring stewardship programs will change these results considerably.

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• Is Palliative Care Expertise Inadequate at your Institution?

  Hospitals are challenged to meet patients’ palliative care needs despite a scarcity of specialists, lack of training, and persistent misconceptions.

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• And the band played on: AIDS in an age of miracle treatments and chronic complacency

  The incredible success of HIV therapies has relegated a disease that was once a death sentence to a chronic condition for many people. With that has come a frustrating complacency about basic prevention and testing among some groups.

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• FDA issues proposed rule to address data gaps for active ingredients in healthcare antiseptics

  FDA recommends that healthcare personnel continue to use these products consistent with infection control guidelines while additional data are gathered.

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• NIOSH, OSHA create respiratory protection tools

  The Joint Commission develops a monograph on respiratory protection.

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