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Airborne concentrations of formaldehyde above 0.1 ppm can cause irritation of the respiratory tract. The severity of irritation worsens as concentrations increase.
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A growing demand for N95 filtering facepiece respirators has created a booming market -- and concerns about the marketing claims of new products.
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The nation's emergency care system is in crisis, and the solution must include protections for the health care workers who struggle to make it work, according to an Institute of Medicine report ...
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Having made infection control and patient safety top priorities in recent years, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is now taking on the thorny issue of flu vaccinations for health care workers in a new standard that becomes effective next year.
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With all of these problems, should you flash sterilize at all? "They should do it when they have no other choice," says Ramona Conner, RN, MSN, CNOR, perioperative nursing specialist at the Center for Nursing Practice at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN). "It should not be routine."
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Staff need a thorough understanding of the principles of decontamination and sterilization to perform flash sterilization properly, says Ramona Conner, RN, MSN, CNOR, perioperative nursing specialist at the Center for Nursing Practice at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN).
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Medication lists for patients, development of a process for patients to express concern, and identification of patients at risk for suicide are the main changes and additions to requirements of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' 2007 National Patient Safety Goals for ambulatory and hospital-based outpatient surgery programs.
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A new infection control standard that will require hospitals to offer influenza vaccinations to staff members, volunteers, and independent licensed practitioners who have close patient contact will take effect Jan.1, 2007, for organizations accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The new requirement does not apply to ambulatory facilities.
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In a first-of-its-kind court case, a jury held that a Louisiana hospital and two physicians intentionally misrepresented a former anesthesiologist's qualifications to a hospital in Washington state where he later was said to have botched a tubal ligation that left a 31-year-old woman with severe brain damage.
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The California Hospital Association has sued Blue Cross of California to stop a new payment policy that decreases reimbursement for endoscopic procedures that are performed in hospital outpatient departments and boosts payment when the procedures are performed in physician offices and freestanding surgery centers.
