Intermountain Health reduced antibiotic prescribing in urgent care clinics by 15 percent after rolling out new stewardship initiatives, according to a study published May 11 in JAMA Network Open.
Category: Infection Control
The case for letting nurses initiate C. diff testing
Allowing bedside nurses to independently order Clostridioides difficile testing could help hospitals lower the risk of patient infections and associated deaths, according to a study published May 11 in the American Journal of Infection Control.
Stop antibiotics after surgery, says new guidance
New guidance on surgical site infections calls for physicians to cease antibiotic prophylaxis immediately after surgeries, according to research published May 4 in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. It is the first major revision to the guideli…
Inside Virginia Mason's bacterial outbreak probe
Health officials have yet to identify the source of a Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak tied to 31 illnesses and seven patient deaths at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center, NPR affiliate KUOW reported May 5.
HAIs are going up, and it should 'stop hospitals in their tracks,' Leapfrog data reveals
Data released as part of The Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital rankings revealed a significant rise in healthcare-associated infections — a trend that was in decline prior to the pandemic.
New 'playbooks' aim to help facilities better prepare for disease outbreaks
Needless to say, the onset of COVID-19 came without a clear road map for the medical profession to follow while navigating it. It’s in light of this that the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology launched a series of playb…
Loosened mask rules concern some high-risk patients
The pivot from pandemic-era mandatory masking in healthcare settings to optional masking — even for healthcare staff in most cases — has become a difficult situation for vulnerable, high-risk and immunocompromised patients to navigate.
How this Texas system prevented HAIs from rising amid pandemic
The Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in Dallas prevented healthcare-associated infection rates from rising during the pandemic — and reduced burnout among infection prevention and control team members — through a 14-month initiative, acc…
4 dead in ongoing bacterial outbreak at Seattle hospital
Over the last six months, 31 patients at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center have been infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae and four have since died, NPR affiliate KUOW reported April 25.
CLABSI-free for 16 months: 3 notes on how a Chicago hospital got there
UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Ill., hasn’t seen a central-line-associated blood infection since December 2021 — an accomplishment that took coordinated planning and multidisciplinary collaboration.
