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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's request for information (RFI) for possible regulatory action on infectious disease risk to health care workers includes the following key points:
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Editor's note: In this issue we conclude our two-part series on the national epidemic of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) with a look at current issues and controversies surrounding testing, discontinuing isolation and environmental cleaning.
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It sometimes seems, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that everybody talks about infection prevention but nobody does anything about it. Well, give the glory to the environmental services team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Rochester, MN. Talk about a hands-on intervention.
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Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections are becoming more prevalent in certain populations, particularly the HIV infected and intravenous drug users, researchers are finding.
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When staff at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) began working on reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia rates, they armed themselves with more than a bundle. The work was informed by the theory of high reliability how to make progress and how to sustain improvements.
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In an effort to help health care organizations implement or enhance tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination programs for patients and health care workers, The Joint Commission is preparing a monograph based on real-world clinical practice.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is setting the stage for regulatory action on occupational infection prevention in hospitals and other heath care settings.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs 153-hospital system has sharply reduced methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections through a nationwide program featuring active surveillance cultures (ASC), an epidemiologist reported recently in Atlanta at the Fifth Decennial Conference on Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs).
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The Joint Commission's longstanding patient safety goal on infection prevention underscores the critical importance of improving hand hygiene compliance by health care providers. Moreover, again in 2010, the Joint Commission urges infection preventionists and their colleagues to foster "a culture of hand hygiene" by monitoring compliance and providing feedback.
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Demonstrating that you're prepared is important when Joint Commission surveyors knock on your door, says Susan Bukunt, RN, MPA, CPHQ, senior director of clinical quality and patient safety at El Camino Hospital with two campuses in Los Gatos and Mountain View, CA. "Being able to give them what they're asking for shows them that you're ready and you take this seriously," she says.
