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Stockpiling of personal protective equipment is an important component of pandemic planning. But how do you know just how many respirators to stockpile?
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An advisory panel is recommending less stringent infection control precautions for novel H1N1, but the move is just one step in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examination of the issue.
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Every year, the basic message is the same: Get your flu shot. But hospitals around the country have found innovative ways to market that message - and get the attention of health care workers. Here are a few campaigns highlighted by the Joint Commission in its recent monograph on influenza vaccination.
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Fewer than half of health care workers receive their annual influenza immunization, according to federal surveys, despite a growing call for flu shots to protect patients as well as employees. Each year, hospitals gear up for annual flu campaigns but find they can spur little improvement in vaccination rates.
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One evening, ICU nurse Janet Braillard, RN, returned to work at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo, CA, after being out with a respiratory illness and discovered a new memo. There was a shortage of N95 respirators, the hospital said, and nurses would need to place their respirators in a plastic bag, keep them in their lockers, and reuse them until they were visibly damaged or soiled.
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Be prepared for a double strike of influenza this year - and a prolonged season of vaccination to combat it.
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National health care reform must include a quality component - including preventing health care-associated infections - if it is to become an effective and affordable reality, Mark R. Chassin, MD, president of The Joint Commission, notes in a commentary posted on the Joint Commission web site.
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The Joint Commission takes on the controversial issue of decolonization of patients carrying multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in a new report aimed at health care CEOs. With more hospitals adopting active surveillance cultures to detect MDROs, the question of attempting to decolonize patients has become controversial due to issues of cost and long-term efficacy.
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Hospitals need federal oversight to ensure that their medical residents are not working excessive hours that could lead to hazardous levels of fatigue, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel has concluded.
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OSHA issued a final rule in December clarifying that the agency can cite on a per-employee basis if an employer fails to provide personal protective equipment or training.