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Overview: The goal of the surveillance, prevention, and control of infection function is to identify and reduce risks of acquiring and transmitting infections among and between patients, staff, physicians and other licensed independent practitioners, contract service workers, volunteers, students, and visitors. Surveillance, prevention, and control of infection covers a broad range of processes and activities, both in direct patient care and in patient care support, that are coordinated and carried out by the hospital.
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As cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) decline worldwide, questions remain about one of the major tools for protecting health care workers: Just how effective is the N95 filtering facepiece respirator?
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Reports of possible hospital transmission of monkeypox once again highlight the risk of newly emerging infectious diseases for health care workers and the need for vigilant infection control and swift identification of cases.
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Surface contamination may be an important method of transmission of the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to investigations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
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As many as 170 hospitals could be subject to wall-to-wall inspections this year under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administrations targeted inspection program.
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Infection control professionals attempting to comply with accreditors and do a root-cause analysis of fatal nosocomial infections must set narrow patient definitions and work closely with their quality improvement colleagues if any meaningful prevention data are to come out of the controversial initiative, an ICP warned.
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National patient safety legislation that would encourage the confidential reporting of medical errors is critically needed in todays health care system, urged Dennis OLeary, MD, president of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL.
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The University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle is in no hurry to implement a tool an ad hoc committee created to teach patients their role in safety issues. It is running it through a series of pre-tests before implementing it housewide.
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Before creating a tool to help patients and their families understand their roles in patient safety, Cezanne Garcia, MPH, CHES, manager of patient and family education Services at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, conducted a literature search to determine what information was available.
