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In response to repeated requests for interviews and information, the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) agreed to take written questions by Hospital Infection Control & Prevention and circulate them within the agency for answers.
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Infection preventionists should make sure their administrative leaders are aware in a collegial, non-confrontational way of course that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires top-level support for infection control programs, advises Connie Steed, RN, BSN, CIC, manager of infection control at the Greenville (SC) Hospital System.
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If you want employees to comply with sharps safety, then their supervisors have to require it. That is a strong message that emerged from a survey of paramedics related to bloodborne pathogen exposures.
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Influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel is a professional and ethical responsibility and non-compliance with healthcare facility policies regarding vaccination should not be tolerated, argues the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).
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"I have climbed Mount Rainier five times. Each time I made that tough trek, my risk of dying was about 100 times smaller than the risk I will face on the operating table." Don Berwick, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
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In the latest move in its dramatically expanding oversight of health care associated infection (HAI) programs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is calling for hospitals to report central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) to ensure full reimbursement for care. With several infection-control initiatives underway, CMS is lining
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A retrospective study of 12,333 infants < 6 months of age with urinary tract infections showed no difference in treatment failure between short-course (≤ 3 days) and long-course (≥ 4 days) of antibiotic therapy.
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In this single-center study of what happened to 126 consecutive patients who survived an ICU admission requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation, 56% of them were alive after one year, but only 11 of these were functioning independently. On average, the patients spent 74% of all post-discharge days in the hospital, in a post-acute care facility, or at home receiving paid home health care.
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Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) was investigated in 291 adults upon hospital admission. MR-CoNS carriage was present in 19.2% of patients. SCCmec type IV was found in 22% of the Co-NS isolated, and sequencing revealed extensive structural homology between SCCmec IV in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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There is considerable concern regarding in-stent thrombosis of drug-eluting stents (DES) when aspirin and clopidogrel are stopped for non-cardiac surgery (NCS), but a paucity of data.