Hospital Employee Health – March 1, 2006
March 1, 2006
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JCAHO: Hospitals should track HCW flu vaccines, improve vaccination rates
For many hospitals, encouraging health care workers (HCWs) to receive the flu vaccine is an annual exercise in futility. -
Flu vaccine rate rises to 96% with mandate
The nation's only hospital to mandate influenza vaccination of health care workers achieved a 96% vaccination rate, despite a court ruling that exempted unionized nurses from the "fitness for duty" requirement. -
CDC guidelines may mean fewer TB tests
Hospitals will perform fewer tuberculosis screening tests but may provide more training for TB skin test placers and readers ... -
CDC TB Screening Risk Classifications
This excerpt from the 2005 TB guidelines explains the new recommendations regarding risk assessment and TB testing: ... -
Most HCWs decline treatment for latent TB
Health care workers with positive TB skin tests frequently decline treatment for latent tuberculosis infection, putting themselves, their co-workers, and patients at risk, tuberculosis experts say. -
Will avian flu act more like SARS?
Avian influenza challenges our usual assumptions about how influenza is spread and how to protect health care workers from infection. -
Pandemic infection control practices for HCWs
Infection control practices for pandemic influenza are the same as other human influenza viruses ... -
JCAHO Update for Infection Control: Joint Commission considers mandating HCW flu shots
Mandating seasonal health care worker flu vaccinations -- an issue so contentious it led to open revolt in the first U.S. hospital that tried it ... -
JCAHO Update for Infection Control: JCAHO flu vaccine standard would codify CDC guidance
In requesting input whether it should develop a standard requiring seasonal flu immunization, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) made the following key points: ... -
JCAHO Update for Infection Control: Patient safety alert: Check if transfers on right meds
In a major new emphasis on patient safety, the JCAHO is warning that failure to keep track of the medications needed by transferred patients is resulting in preventable deaths.