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Editor's note: Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD is a professor in the departments of anesthesiology and critical care, surgery, and health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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Increasing the possibility of hospital outbreaks via undiagnosed cases, measles infection has hit the United States at epidemic levels this year. More measles cases were reported in the first seven months of 2008 than during the same period in any year since 1996, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The SCIP Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is not just for clinicians. There is a message for patients as well: Know the risks and protect yourself.
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The Minnesota Department of Health has issued guidelines for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that address an issue the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has left unresolved: when to discontinue contact isolation precautions.
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Conceding that there is too much debate and controversy about the practice, the Joint Commission has dropped a proposed requirement in its 2009 patient safety goals to conduct active surveillance cultures (ASC) for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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An increasing number of hospitals are applying an exotic-sounding philosophy to solve an all too ordinary problem: patient infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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One of the leading hospitals in the country has slashed infection rates with an approach called "positive deviance" (PD) that encourages frontline workers to share novel solutions to day-to-day problems.
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How serious did Charlotte, NC-based Novant Health decide to take MRSA infections after an outbreak among premature infants left the hospital with two dead babies? Posters went up on the walls that featured a child in a hospital bed with the caption, "You could kill him with your bare hands."
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As the Joint Commission makes preventing surgical-site infections (SSIs) a national patient safety goal next year some infection preventionists may be more ready than others to meet the full panoply of phased-in requirements.
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The Minnesota Department of Health recommends the following for discontinuing contact isolation and "removing patient flags" for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus:
