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The principal findings of a recent economic survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology include the following:
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The Centers for Disease Control continues to reassess its infection control guidelines for pandemic influenza A H1N1, but has held to a controversial N95 respirator recommendation due to the possibility of airborne spread that would make standard surgical masks ineffective, said Michael Bell, MD, associate director for Infection Control in the CDC Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.
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Recent outbreaks of hepatitis C are a wake-up call to boost infection control practices, particularly in outpatient settings. But they also underscore the prevalence of HCV and the continued occupational risk to health care workers.
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Perhaps no American in medicine is more synonymous with hand hygiene than Elaine Larson, RN, PhD, FAAN, CIC, associate dean for research at the Columbia School of Nursing in New York City. Larson has authored scores of papers on the cardinal principle of infection prevention.
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It's when they looked back at what they had accomplished that they realized they really had been organized.
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Venous thromboembolism (VTE) has hit center stage as a major and preventable cause of death in hospitals and now a core measure for The Joint Commission.
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Effective July 1, accredited hospitals will be scored on both the 2009 accreditation standards and the additional requirements released by The Joint Commission in March to bring the accrediting body more in line with CMS Conditions of Participation (CoPs). But that's not the only thing that will be different in the scoring and surveying process.
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Quality care doesn't end when a patient leaves the hospital. And with rehospitalization rates on the top of the list of concerns for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, managing the care of the patient after he or she is discharged from your facility is not a nicety, it's a necessity.
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David Harlow, a health care lawyer and consultant, is the founder of The Harlow Group LLC and a "blawger" at http://healthblawg.typepad.com.
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With the recognition by hospitalists that improvements needed to be made in transitions in care, primarily focusing on the discharge process to prevent readmissions, the Society of Hospital Medicine has set out to make those improvements.
