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One of the leading hospitals in the country has slashed infection rates with an approach called "positive deviance" (PD) that encourages frontline workers to share novel solutions to day-to-day problems.
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How serious did Charlotte, NC-based Novant Health decide to take MRSA infections after an outbreak among premature infants left the hospital with two dead babies? Posters went up on the walls that featured a child in a hospital bed with the caption, "You could kill him with your bare hands."
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As the Joint Commission makes preventing surgical-site infections (SSIs) a national patient safety goal next year some infection preventionists may be more ready than others to meet the full panoply of phased-in requirements.
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The Minnesota Department of Health recommends the following for discontinuing contact isolation and "removing patient flags" for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus:
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The Joint Commission new 2009 national patient safety goal to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections (CA-BSIs; NPSG.07.04.01) calls for use of use of a common-sense but once controversial checklist to ensure a standardized protocol is followed for central venous catheter insertion.
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The Joint Commission new national patient safety goal to prevent surgical-site infections (SSIs; NPSG.07.05.01) includes a requirement to look for SSIs out to 30 days after the procedure raising the difficult but critical issue of post- discharge surveillance.
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Lapses in personal protective equipment and training could soon become a lot more costly. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a "clarification" of rules, including the respirator protection and bloodborne pathogen standards, that give it authority to magnify fines for hospitals and other employers.
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Many hospitals would be happy to lift their rate of health care worker influenza immunization past 60% or 70%, but in Iowa, the bar is quite a bit higher than that. In fact, it is near perfection.
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It just takes an evening of viewing the television drama E.R. to know that hospital work is stressful. But the stress that evolves into an occupational hazard isn't from treating trauma victims or mysterious illnesses.
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OSHA has proposed wording changes to the following sections of standards that related to the health care industry:
