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Just how clean are your pharmacies and oncology units of contamination from chemotherapy agents and other hazardous drugs? That has been a vexing question, but now several companies are offering testing.
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A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital inspection initiative includes the following questions for employee health professionals regarding prevention of transmission of infections to health care workers. The tool includes these interview questions:
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The status of employee health is rising, but so are the expectations. As part of a heightened focus on reducing hospital infections, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing a national survey program that will include interviews with employee health professionals.
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It takes a team to create a safe workplace not just a committee, but an ongoing collaboration between employee health, safety, risk management, and other professionals. That is the most important advice for reducing workers' compensation claims, says Lori Severson, MS, HEM, ASP, loss control consultant with Lockton Companies of Denver.
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Beginning in July 2012, The Joint Commission will require hospitals to improve influenza rates annually and to work toward a national goal of 90% flu vaccination of health care workers.
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IRB offices that have more than one employee should also create a career track that helps staff develop leadership and other skills, experts say.A career track also can improve staff morale and improve retention by giving employees a way to move up without moving out.
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The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues offered 14 recommendations for improving oversight of human subjects research:
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Add another voice to the national conversation on improving protection of research participants: The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which recently released its recommendations for reforming federal oversight of human subjects research.
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Researchers and IRBs should pay close attention to informed consent comprehension among all research participants, but this is especially true of people from a high-risk population.
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Trying to rein in the widespread misuse of antibiotics that is driving the rise of pan-resistant infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created an electronic tracking system that will allow hospitals to monitor and benchmark drug use much as they already do for health care associated infections (HAIs).
