Authors: William J. Kennedy, DO, Fellow, Palliative Care Services, Mount Carmel Health, Columbus, OH; Philip H. Santa-Emma, MD, Medical Director, Palliative Care Services, Mount Carmel Health, Columbus, OH; and Robert M. Taylor, MD, Medical Director, Palliative Care Services, Mount Carmel Health, Columbus, OH. Peer Reviewer: Lynn McDonald, MD, Medical Director, Hospice of Kankakee Valley, Bourbonnais, IL.
The nationwide push for infection rate disclosure laws is an historic opportunity to get full funding for clinically proven surveillance methods in the nations hospitals, one of the modern pioneers in the field said recently in Baltimore at the annual meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
With increasing demands for infection rate data and public accountability, infection control professionals are finding that the public has very little understanding of the ICPs role in the hospital.
Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is emerging in such a distinct epidemiological manner that the lessons gained from decades of dealing with MRSA in the hospital may not be particularly helpful in stemming an emerging public health problem, experts warn.
Though completed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in February 2003, updated guidelines for disinfection and sterilization of infectious agents in health care settings remain shelved due to a dispute between federal agencies.
There has been considerable reaction and consternation among infection control professionals about new requirements to keep a log of all hospital infections or face the wrath of inspectors from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Theres only one problem: the CMS requirement is not new.
