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Busy EDs are increasingly relying on temporary staff to cope with nursing shortages, unanticipated spikes in volume, and other personnel challenges, but the practice is coming at a steep price, according to research from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
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Some electronic medical record (EMR) systems make it difficult for emergency physicians (EPs) to view the nursing notes, says Jonathan D. Lawrence, MD, JD, FACEP, an ED physician at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA, and assistant professor of medicine at Harbor/University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, which increases the chance of conflicting information getting into the patient's chart.
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Trying to rein in the widespread misuse of antibiotics that is driving the rise of pan-resistant infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created an electronic tracking system that will allow hospitals to monitor and benchmark drug use much as they already do for health care associated infections (HAIs).
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As a key complement to its new antibiotic use tracking system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in a pilot program to prevent overuse and misuse of antibiotics in hospitals.
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While emerging multidrug resistant gram negative rods are a prime topic of current concern, there is a sobering reminder that longstanding foes have not exactly been vanquished.
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Getting a flu shot doesn't provide as much protection as was previously reported, according to new analysis of more than 5,000 studies. Now it's time to be honest about the limitations of the vaccine to build trust with health care workers, says an international expert in risk communication.
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More health care workers than ever are receiving the influenza vaccine. A national survey shows that by mid-November, about 78% of them had been vaccinated a rate that is almost double the rate of about five years ago.
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Infection preventionists are keeping their heads above water in a brutal economy, though they may be understandably confused about which hat they have on them.
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A typical hospital collects hundreds, if not thousands, of data points for reporting to state, federal, and accreditation agencies. It's so much information that trying to determine what is most important to share with a hospital board could become a tedious chore.
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If you say it out loud, people will agree intuitively: You can learn more from your failures than from your successes. But that doesn't mean people want to trumpet what doesn't work.
