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Growing anti-regulatory pressure in a down economy to say nothing of presidential politics as an election year looms are making it exceeding difficult for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to advance its controversial proposed infectious disease standard to protect health care workers.
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Your move to an electronic health record (EHR) system will save you time and money while increasing your ... infection rates? How could this happen?
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Your annual training in the use of personal protective equipment may not be good enough. According to a study of PPE use during the H1N1 pandemic in Canada, most health care workers don't know how to choose the right items or how to put them on or take them off correctly.
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The Joint Commission recently posted the following answer to a frequently asked question on screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
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Key program elements of a patient isolation program at the University of Chicago Medical Center include the following:
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Emerging multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria continue to spread across the health care continuum, becoming entrenched in non-acute and long term care settings and threatening vulnerable hospital patients with untreatable infections.
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Doing the right thing doesn't guarantee that everyone is going to be pleased, says Frederick S. Southwick, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and quality projects manager for the senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida Shands Health in Gainesville.
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The needle is beginning to move. Four key healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are declining nationally as the result of unprecedented interest and action that includes everything from sweeping state and federal collaboratives to the outrage of individual patients.
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The Joint Commission targets central lineassociated bloodstream infections in its 2011 national patient safety goals, with NPSG.07.04.01 calling for hospitals to "implement evidence-based practices to prevent (CLABSIs)."
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[Editor's note: In this issue we continue with the second part of Patti Grant's IP Newbie column that was featured in our September issue. As you may recall, she described an all too common situation: How various professionals in healthcare are expected to participate in activities beyond their original area of expertise. This expectation does not seem so much a direct consequence of the struggling economy as a reflection of the attempt by various specialties to move from "silos" to a team approach to problem solving, Grant noted, observing that "Patient safety will most likely be less precarious in this multi-disciplinary improvement environment, but it can come with hefty growing pains." Of course, as an IP Newbie, you're often the one growing.]
