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In an unusual direct appeal to health care facilities, the chairman of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is asking for reports of nosocomial infections that result in patient deaths or permanent loss of function.
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Though recent research supports the need for more infection control staffing than traditionally allotted, ICPs are not expected to press for a specific staffing requirement from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is partnering with three other organizations to conduct a study that will examine hospitals timely use of antibiotics before and after cardiovascular, joint replacement, and hysterectomy surgeries to effectively reduce post-surgical infection.
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Effective Jan. 1, 2003, all Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organization organizations will be surveyed for implementation of the recommendations or of an acceptable alternative. Alternatives must be at least as effective as the published recommendations in achieving the goals.
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Draft guidance by public health officials preparing for a seasonal resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) calls for taking the controversial step of masking all incoming patients with respiratory symptoms, Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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Diverging from the position taken by the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will not urge influenza vaccination for the 2003-2004 season specifically as a response to the possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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There is an increasing emphasis in infection control on doing active surveillance cultures and detecting and isolating patients colonized with pathogens such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
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Editors note: As this issue of Hospital Infection Control went to press, these studies were presented in Chicago at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Look for more in-depth coverage of this conference in our next issue
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Draft guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ratchet up increasing infection control and administrative measures depending on whether severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has appeared globally, within a community, or within a facility.
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The following questions and answers are summarized with permission from an educational brochure developed at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, for patients who are being placed in contact isolation:
