Hospital Infection Control & Prevention – March 1, 2009
March 1, 2009
View Issues
-
The bottom of the iceberg: Is there a hidden hepatitis epidemic beneath all of the outpatient outbreaks?
Once thought of as shocking outliers, the continuing hepatitis outbreaks in ambulatory care settings and clinics increasingly suggest that for every cluster detected, many more infections acquired in health care are being missed due to inadequate surveillance systems and lack of public health resources to investigate individual cases. -
Federal infection laws on horizon for clinics
In a move that may clear the way for federal legislation aimed at preventing outbreaks of bloodborne diseases in ambulatory care, a broad-based coalition of patient safety advocates and health care groups has launched a national education campaign on needle safety. -
CDC mulling hep B shots in nursing homes
In light of continuing outbreaks of hepatitis in ambulatory and long-term care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering recommending hepatitis B virus vaccination for diabetic residents of nursing homes. -
Toxic staph strain may be emerging
The recently reported rapid deaths of two patients infected with a new highly toxic staph strain suggests the deadly pathogen is emerging in the community and certainly will pose a threat to hospitals, a researcher tells Hospital Infection Control & Prevention. -
Abstract & Commentary: A lab strategy to detect prosthetic joint infections
Accurate microbiologic diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is problematic. Infecting organisms reside in a biofilm, and standard culture techniques appear to have suboptimal sensitivity. -
Go beyond the numbers to boost sharps safety
How do you know if your needlestick prevention program is working? A decrease in injuries is a good barometer but sometimes that could reflect a lack of reporting rather than an improvement in safety. -
iP Newbe: Turning point: Critical care nurse becomes IP
With more than 25 years experience as a critical care nurse, Barbara Jordan, RN, MSN, CCRN, could read the bleak signs and symptoms of the patient before her like a map to a destination she had been before. -
Wisdom Teachers: Grief to grace: Loss of son drives mother's message
It is no small sign of hard-earned wisdom that the mother who has lost a loved one to a health care-associated infection (HAI) doesn't want to be cast in angry hues, decrying the failure of a health system that took her 27-year-old son Josh along with some 100,000 other patients felled by infection in 2006. -
The Joint Commission Update for Infection Control: Bye, bye UTIs: Joint Commission and CMS putting heat on, but this mission is possible
The Joint Commission and other national infection prevention groups made a point to include catheter-related urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs) traditionally considered a relatively benign adverse event in a recently issued compendium targeting the major health care-associated infections (HAIs).