Infection Control
Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection - Florence Nightingale
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This Inexpensive Action Lowers Hospital Infections And Protects Against Flu Season
Harvard Medical School graduate and lecturer, Stephanie Taylor, is something of an Indiana Jones of medicine. She’s a determined scientist who can’t seem to sit still. Along with a resume full of accolades and publications, she’s a skydiver with 1,200 jumps. She solves haunting medical mysteries. “Anything that seems scary, I say I need to learn more about that,” she explained in a recent interview.
While practicing pediatric oncology at a major teaching hospital, Taylor wondered why so many of her young patients came down with infections and the flu, despite the hospital’s herculean efforts at prevention. Her hunch: the design and infrastructure of the building contributed somehow.
Dr.…
Resources
The US Health Depends on How It Cares for Health Care Workers
A lack of test kits has forced hospitals to send potentially exposed workers home for just-in-case quarantines. But that means fewer staff on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
What Coronavirus Teaches Our Presidential Candidates About Health Care
It starts with a fever and a cough, sometimes coupled with wheezing and nausea. So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, and the epidemic is worldwide. Don’t panic, I’m not talking about coronavirus. I’m referring to this year’s seasonal flu.
Culture of Secrecy Shields Hospitals With Outbreaks of Drug-Resistant Infections
The lack of transparency puts patients at risk, some say. Institutions say disclosure could scare some people away from seeking needed medical care.
Hospitals Step Up the War on Superbugs
To curb life-threatening infections, medical centers are setting hygiene standards for commonplace equipment.
How clean is your hospital room? To reduce the spread of infections, it could probably be cleaner
Imagine you need to go into hospital. First, you are likely to be seen in the emergency department, and then moved to a ward room for further treatment and recovery. Unknown to you, the last patient in your room had an infection caused by a multi-drug resistant pathogen (bug) – meaning the standard antibiotics can’t fight it. Unfortunately, research suggests if you are admitted to a room where the last patient had this kind of infection, you are significantly more likely to be infected by that same pathogen than if you were admitted to a room where the last patient wasn’t infected.
How Do Hospitals Stop the Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbugs Like C. Auris?
By ripping out floor tiles, reconfiguring pipes, and maybe deploying a hydrogen peroxide–spraying robot. Plus, a lot of bleach.
If Your Smartphone Is Covered With Germs, So Is Your Doctor’s
Health care workers’ mobile devices could make patients sick.
Preventing An Outbreak From Inside The ICU
The concept of the intensive care unit (ICU) as the root of an outbreak may seem contradictory to the usual thinking of infectious disease spread. Usually, the chances are higher in areas where there are more people and traffic, such as an emergency room. But in reality, the only troublesome route of spread in an emergency room is respiratory droplets, and in most cases, the amount spread is not enough to transmit infection to others.
This Protocol May Reduce MRSA Infections After Discharge From The Hospital
Figuring out a way to help contain MRSA has been a vexing problem for large hospital systems . While designing a protocol to help decolonize and reduce bacterial counts in the hospital is crucial, devoting adequate resources and attention to patients discharged with MRSA is equally important in reducing readmissions.
Who is Responsible for Infection Control in Your Organization?
Infection control is likely among the most often discussed topics in improving senior health, as well as the health of others obtaining services from health care providers. However, seniors may have a higher risk of susceptibility to infections, which may be the result of weakened immune systems or other general health problems.
Why Are These Medical Instruments So Tough to Sterilize?
In hospitals around the world, the snakelike duodenoscope is regarded as an indispensable tool for diagnosing and treating diseases of the pancreas and bile ducts. But these fiber-optic devices have a remarkable drawback: Although they are inserted into the upper part of the small intestine through the mouth and constantly reused, they cannot be sterilized by the usual methods. Instead, they are hand-scrubbed and then put through dishwasher-like machines that use chemicals to kill microorganisms. Even when cleaned as instructed, the devices may still retain bacteria that can be transmitted to patients.
This Inexpensive Action Lowers Hospital Infections And Protects Against Flu Season
The one factor most associated with infection was (drum roll): dry air. At low relative humidity, indoor air was strongly associated with higher infection rates. “When we dry the air out, droplets and skin flakes carrying viruses and bacteria are launched into the air, traveling far and over long periods of time. The microbes that survive this launching tend to be the ones that cause healthcare-associated infections.
Infection Control Today
Infection Control Today addresses the most pertinent infection prevention principles and practices for healthcare professionals working in the infection control department.
Infection Prevention Control
We are a dynamic and innovative NHS Infection Prevention and Control team with vast experience of working with staff in the health and social care sector.
Infection Prevention Society
Our vision is that no person is harmed by a preventable infection. Our mission is to inform promote and sustain expert infection prevention policy and practice in the pursuit of patient or service user and staff safety wherever care is delivered.
InfectionControl.tips
The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS) is a not for profit that exists to advance innovations, ideas, and processes that make a difference in global health.
American Journal of Infection Control
AJIC covers key topics and issues in infection control and epidemiology. Infection control professionals, including physicians, nurses, and epidemiologists, rely on AJIC for peer-reviewed articles covering clinical topics as well as original research.
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
Create a safer world through prevention of infection.
CDC
Infection control prevents or stops the spread of infections in healthcare settings. This site includes an overview of how infections spread, ways to prevent the spread of infections, and more detailed recommendations by type of healthcare setting.
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Policymakers increasingly are focused on identifying policy mechanisms to reduce the numbers of infections that may result from patients’ stays in hospitals and other health care facilities. Infectious diseases physicians work in collaboration with other health care personnel (HCP) to develop and implement evidence-based practices to prevent and control these health care-associated infections (HAIs).
OSAP
To be the leading provider of infection prevention and control education, training and credentialing that supports safe dental visits.
WHO
No one should get sick seeking care. Yet globally, hundreds of millions of people are affected every year by health care-associated infections (HAIs), many of which are completely avoidable and a large proportion are caused by antibiotic resistant organisms. No country or health system, even the most developed or sophisticated, can claim to be free of HAIs.
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