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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.