Hospital Infection Control & Prevention – March 1, 2010
March 1, 2010
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The future is now: Patients are consumers in a new era of hospital infection prevention
All the caveats and concerns about whether infection rate disclosures will lead to unintended consequences were more or less rendered moot. For starters, there's a guy on the CR cover snowboarding out of giant TV screen. -
SHEA: Time for national HAI reporting standard
The report recently released by Consumer Reports (CR) on infection rates in health care facilities highlights the importance of transparent public reporting, but a national system is needed to replace the variety of state approaches, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) said in a statement. -
Are CR data accurate? Variables may confound
Beneath the general praise Consumer Reports (CR) received for publishing hospital infection rate data and bringing the importance of infection prevention to the forefront, there is a lingering question in the mind of many a health care epidemiologist. -
IPs should enforce mask use during spinal shots
A fatal meningitis infection in a pregnant woman in Ohio has been linked to an anesthesiologist giving shots into the spine without wearing a surgical face mask, a breach of current infection prevention guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. -
CDC: Infection control breaks likely in NY meningitis cases
Case reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included the following details about three bacterial meningitis cases in postpartum women in New York: -
APIC goes global with Murphy presidency
A proud "Aussie" is the 2010 president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), putting an international face on an organization that clearly wants to expand its global reach. -
iP Newbe: IP volunteers are paying it forward
When I was an IP Newbie back in January 1990, my manager insisted literally made me go to the monthly local APIC chapter meetings. -
Wisdom Teachers: SARS and H1N1: The past is prelude
After some 20 years in infection prevention, Allison McGeer, MD, has weathered both the 2003 Toronto outbreak of SARS and the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza A pandemic. -
The Joint Commission Update for Infection Control: Joint Commission drops controversial IC patient safety goal on sentinel event reporting of HAIs
The Joint Commission has dropped a controversial infection prevention patient safety goal that recommended sentinel event investigations of unanticipated patient deaths and serious injuries due to health care-associated infections (HAIs). -
The Joint Commission Update for Infection Control: Keys to compliance with the new 2010 MDRO goal
Given that some trace the very founding of hospital infection prevention programs back to the first volleys in the longstanding battle with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), it comes as little surprise that The Joint Commission has made these bugs the focus of a National Patient Goal for 2010. -
The Joint Commission Update for Infection Control: MDRO goal starts with risk assessment
The Joint Commission's 2010 patient safety goal to prevent multidrug-resistant infections (NPSG.07.03.01) includes the following key aspects and elements of performance: