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.
Category: Infection Control
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.
Kaiser hospital returns to masking amid COVID-19 outbreak
Staff and visitors will be required to mask up at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Medical Center amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than a dozen hospital workers and patients, The San Francisco Chronicle reported April 20.
AACN: Hand hygiene is more than hand washing
Hygiene practices have come a long way since the CDC first published national hygiene guidelines in the 1980s. With so much to keep track of, a nurse leader summarized some of the latest practice recommendations and strategies to increase hand hygiene …
It's time to end universal mask mandates in healthcare, infectious disease experts say
Wearing masks at grocery stores, on airplanes, subways and buses was the norm during the height of the pandemic. Now, most mask mandates only remain at hospitals and in healthcare settings, but experts say it is time to walk back those policies.
How CDC, AMA plan to manage re-emerging pathogens
Like many things in life, diseases and pathogens are not linear. What was once under control may resurface or spike due to evolving global conditions — which is something experts from the CDC and American Medical Association are continuously preparing …
Half of healthcare workers with COVID-19 may still show up to care for patients: study
About 50 percent of healthcare workers with symptomatic COVID-19 in a new study showed up for work, indicating concern over high workload burden for coworkers and personal responsibility.
Nevada VA system does away with presurgery COVID tests
Las Vegas-based Veterans Affairs Southern Nevada Healthcare System has stopped testing asymptomatic patients for COVID-19 before surgical procedures, it announced April 10.
