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Influenza poses a rare but real risk of fatal infection in otherwise healthy children, a Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention epidemiologist reports.
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Preventing bloodstream infections among the most costly and potentially fatal patient complications provides a benefit so powerful that one is tempted to dismiss the risk.
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Although efforts to cut the overuse of antibiotics have made some headway in hospitals, the majority of prescriptions are written by community-based clinicians often for pediatric patients with common ailments.
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Coffee is widely consumed throughout the United States. Some prior studies have associated coffee consumption with increased rates of heart disease, whereas other studies have shown less heart disease in coffee drinkers.
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In this issue: Side effects of finasteride; new ruling on pharmaceutical companies paying generic manufacturers; and FDA actions.
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On 15 May the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research/Office of Blood Research and Review (CBER/OBRR) granted market clearance to the OraQuick in-home HIV-1/2 antibody test based on the recommendation of the Blood Products Advisory Committee.
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In this paper, the authors performed a pharmacoepidemiologic study on the relationship between azithromycin, a frequently used broad-spectrum macrolide antibiotic, and cardiovascular death. The authors analyzed data from the Tennessee Medicaid program.
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Memo to the Centers from Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from two leading surgeons on the literal cutting edge of infection prevention in the OR: Hospitals and federal regulators should encourage the use of newer and safer types of surgery and more transparency with patients on procedure options and possible outcomes. That would do more to reduce surgical site infection (SSI) rates than inspections by CMS and other government regulators.
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As the lines blur between patient safety and worker safety, employee health professionals including those "two-hat" infection preventionists with dual responsibilities can expect much more scrutiny from regulators who traditionally focused on patient care.
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Recently I've chosen a major change in job responsibilities. For the second time I'm the sole Infection Preventionist (IP) for a facility, but this time the realm of 'Quality' is included, and my facility is a 32-bed surgical hospital including a four-bed ICU. It was time to challenge myself to keep learning new approaches to age-old problems surrounding patient safety. Talk about moving out of the comfort zone!
