Hospital Infection Control & Prevention
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A tragedy of errors: Expert panel cites problems, lessons learned in death of U.S. Ebola patient
As with many individual tragedies and even major disasters, hindsight reveals key moments and near misses where a single action may have changed the outcome.
Do your duty: Report all infections
Two leading federal agencies are warning hospitals and other facilities that they can be fined and denied Medicare funds if they are caught intentionally underreporting healthcare-associated infections.
IDWeek 2015: Drug stewardship program sharply reduces Clostridium difficile infections, cuts costs
Implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program in a pediatric hospital slashed Clostridium difficile infection rates by almost three-fold, relieving both patient symptoms and parental worries, researchers reported recently in San Diego at IDWeek 2015.
IDWeek 2015: 9 million children now susceptible to measles
Infection preventionists should be vigilant for incoming measles cases, as some 9 million U.S. children — 1 in 8 of those age 17 and younger — are susceptible to a virus that can cause chaotic outbreaks in healthcare facilities, researchers recently reported in San Diego at IDWeek 2015.
CDC issues core elements for antibiotic stewardship in nursing homes
It’s no exaggeration to say that antibiotic stewardship programs in nursing homes will literally save lives.
Measles can cause costly chaos even if no transmission occurs
Considering everything that went absolutely wrong — and that’s a lot — it’s something of a minor miracle that more than 1,000 people were exposed to measles in May 2014 at Inova Health System in Fairfax, VA, without a single case of transmission. Not one.
APIC: IPs should use bold new ANA vaccine statement to open discussion of APIC policies
Infection prevention leaders say the field has been given a critical opportunity to open vaccine policy discussions and improve both patient and worker safety by the surprisingly strong stance recently taken by the American Nurses Association.
CDC, FDA sound alarm on recurrent problems in reprocessing
Warning that continuing infection control lapses are endangering patients, the CDC and the FDA recently issued a joint alert calling for healthcare facilities to review policies and practices in cleaning and processing reusable medical devices.
Legionella Infections Surge and the CDC Revises its Guidance
Several issues are on the table, including the task of beginning outbreak investigations earlier based on a single confirmed infection.
Do you know proper PPE removal procedures?
Observations of workers for the study took place October 13-31, 2014. With Ebola still very much in the news at that time, the findings are somewhat surprising, but likely would be similar at many other hospitals.