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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is emphasizing that knowledge is power when it comes to patients. Recent Joint Commission initiatives indicate a growing trend toward patient education and empowerment to enhance a culture of safety and prevent infections.
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Revising guidance on the use of surgical masks and respirators during a pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now advises that it is "prudent" for health care workers to use N95 respirators during "direct care activities involving patients with confirmed or suspected pandemic influenza."
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New guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on control of multidrug resistant pathogens (MDROs) include a section on "intensified interventions" such as active surveillance cultures (ASC). The CDC recommendations in this area include the following:
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The prevention of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) is a "national priority . . . that requires all health care facilities and agencies assume responsibility," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes in long-awaited new guidelines on the issue.
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Though recently released with much fanfare in Pennsylvania, the first state infection rate report with hospital-specific data contains a key caveat: it should not be used to compare one hospital against another.
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Antiaging Supplements Proven Ineffective; The Three Most Common Culprits of ADE; New Guidelines for Lyme Disease Prevention; FDA Actions
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A previously described "closed-loop knowledge based system" placed into a standard ventilator may be used to guide weaning via the pressure support mode.
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Severe sepsis with organ failure has one of the highest mortality rates of any diagnosis commonly treated in the Intensive Care Unit. Recent clinical trials have provided some positive results with reductions in overall mortality from sepsis.
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