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In this issue we conclude our two-part special report "MRSA Patient Stories" with comments from clinicians and public health officials, particularly in light of emerging data indicating MRSA infections can be sharply reduced through patient screening programs.
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A new rapid tuberculosis test promises to help reduce health care worker exposures through early identification of patients.
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Applying the considerable power of infection control interventions across more than 150 hospitals nationwide, the Veterans Affairs (VA) system is planning to target Clostridium difficle in its next major initiative, Hospital Infection Control & Prevention learned.
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A universal screening program for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago is reducing infections by approximately 70% annually, says Jorge Parada, MD, MPH, infectious disease chief at the teaching hospital.
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Eliminating needlesticks was once an official federal goal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promoted it as a "health care challenge." More modestly, Healthy People 2010 set a measurable goal of reducing needlesticks among hospital-based health care workers by 30%.
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After one patient death in 2009, an error with an adult patient this year, followed by two patient deaths, Seattle Children's Hospital has been in a lot of discussions with not only the state's department of health and The Joint Commission, but the media and its staff as well.
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If the thought of The Joint Commission surveying you on your environment of care or building safety makes you squirm, you're not the only one. And there's good reason.
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Clutter. It's a huge problem. "It's probably the second most scored standard," says Kurt Patton, MS, RPh, CEO of Patton Healthcare Consulting in Glendale, AZ, and former executive director of accreditation services at The Joint Commission.
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In its latest sentinel event alert, issued Nov. 17, The Joint Commission calls attentions to preventing suicide risks in the emergency department and medical/surgical unit and recommends educating clinicians, noting that many of these suicides are committed by patients who had no prior psychiatric history.
