Conducting an inspection in a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic shortly before it became the epicenter of the largest "look-back" patient testing effort in medical history, inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services saw nothing amiss with needle practices that ultimately led to a nationally publicized hepatitis C outbreak, Hospital Infection Control & Prevention has learned.
A survey tool to assess infection control in ambulatory care settings was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use by inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has announced the launch of APIC Consulting Services Inc.
The infection prevention community has lost some measure of credibility in the public and political eye and must embrace the patient advocacy movement to regain a leadership role, said Steve Weber, MD, a health care epidemiologist at the University of Chicago.
(Editor's note: In this issue of IP Newbie, we feature a column for new professionals written by Patti Grant, an infection preventionist and editorial advisory board member of this publication. An IP since 1990, Grant was profiled in the debut issue of this supplement. She has a passion for mentoring that will add invaluable "in-the-trenches" insights for new practitioners in the field.)
As a new generation of health care epidemiologists comes into the work force, these physicians may find that hospital administrators have a troubling lack of awareness about the resources required to run an infection prevention program in today's increasingly regulatory environment.
Citing a dramatic disconnect between the tens of thousands of patients dying annually with health care-associated infections (HAIs) and the paltry number that actually are being reported as sentinel events, The Joint Commission is urging hospitals to file the voluntary reports to help improve patient safety.
Under standard IC.01.03.01, The Joint Commission requires that the hospital identifies risks for acquiring and transmitting infections.
With the recent release of landmark compendium guidelines for prevention of six major health care-associated infections (HAIs), the immediate question is whether these practical, "actionable" guidelines will result in real action.
The condensed guidelines in the recently issued compendium for six major infections emphasize administrative responsibility to provide the resources and infrastructure to make the prevention of health care-associated infections (HAIs) a reality. In this landmark new document at least, infection prevention really is everyone's business.