Infection Control
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Griefwork: The Experience of Loss in Healthcare
When a patient dies, healthcare workers may experience grief that they barely acknowledge because they know their role is to move on to the next patient. But over time, such grief can build up and contribute to stress and burnout. Healthcare organizations can help their staff cope with grief and prevent workplace burnout by ensuring policies acknowledge the emotional needs of staff.
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A Risk Management Look at Employee Trips and Falls
Falls, slips, and trips were the second most common event leading to workplace injuries and illnesses in hospitals, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accounting for 25% of all reported employee injuries. Addressing fall prevention with employees is different than with patients. With patients, fall prevention focuses mostly on transfers from beds and wheelchairs, as well as environmental factors. Employee slips and falls tend to be the top workers’ compensation claim in both frequency and severity.
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Measles Woes Lead to Pushback Against Antivaxxers
Measles resurgence coincides with parents citing unsafe vaccines in declining to have their children immunized. However, there is a growing pushback against the antivaccine movement, with herd immunity threatened and the real risk of measles to immunocompromised patients and those who cannot receive immunizations.
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Violence Prevention Begins With Culture of Respect
When a surgeon was shot and killed by a patient at a nearby hospital in 2015, clinicians at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care in Worcester overhauled its comprehensive violence prevention program. The incident that shook the Boston area medical community was the murder of a popular and highly skilled surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital by a relative of a deceased patient.
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Nurse Suicides Finally Coming to Light
Overcoming the historic dearth of data on a critical issue, the authors of a new study reported that nurses are at higher risk of suicide than the general population. Researchers reported that female nurse suicide rates in the United States were significantly higher than for women in general, with a rate of 11.9 per 100,000 nurses, compared to 7.5 suicides per 100,000 women in the population. Male nurse suicides are even higher, with a rate of 39.8 per 100,000, compared to 28.2 per 100,000 men in general.
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APIC Raises IP Profile on YouTube
For many years, patients, the public, and even some fellow healthcare workers were not fully aware of the critical role IPs played behind the scenes. The IP profile has been raised dramatically over the last decade by national efforts to reduce healthcare-associated infections, the rise of antibiotic resistance, and emerging infections like Ebola. As a result, APIC created a video that features IPs explaining what they do and what aspects of the job they particularly enjoy. The video can be used to raise awareness among the public, patients, medical personnel, and recruit new IPs into the profession.
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Infection Prevention Expertise Lacking on Water Management Teams
Water management plans to control Legionella and other waterborne pathogens in healthcare settings have become a priority since a CMS memo in 2017 ordered such measures to protect patients. Infection preventionists should be a key member of these water management teams, but almost half the facilities consulted by Legionella experts did not have an IP on the committee.
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CMS Deadline Nears, But Infection Control in Long-Term Care a Challenge
The churn of staff turnover and administrative changes in long-term care may make it difficult for many facilities to meet an impending federal requirement to establish infection prevention programs. The CMS deadline for a designated and trained infection preventionist in long-term care facilities is Nov. 28, 2019. CMS and the CDC are offering free training to meet this requirement, but there are signs that some long-term care facilities will struggle to comply.
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MERS Still a Threat in Saudi Arabia
Although it has not been sustained in other countries following introductions and outbreaks, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus has established an endemic presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since it emerged in 2012, the World Health Organization reports. As of June 30, 2019, there have been 2,449 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS reported, with 84% in Saudi Arabia and the rest in 27 other countries, including the United States. There have been 845 MERS deaths, resulting in a mortality rate of 35%.
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CDC Gears Up as Ebola Outbreak Escalates in Africa
The CDC is stepping up efforts to fight an Ebola outbreak that is threatening to spread beyond the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization recently declared an international health emergency in DRC after an Ebola case appeared July 14 in Goma, a city of 2 million people that has connecting flights to global air travel. As of Aug. 2, there have been four cases in Goma.