Endoscopes still contaminated after cleaning

10-Aug-2015 - Potentially harmful bacteria can survive on endoscopes used to examine the interior of the digestive tract, despite a multi-step cleaning and disinfecting process, according to a study. Though endoscopes were cleaned in accordance with multi-society guidelines, viable microbes and residual ...

Twitter shared news of first Ebola case 3 days before officials

04-Jun-2015 - Tweets regarding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa last summer reached more than 60 million people in the three days prior to official outbreak announcements, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.Researchers from the Columbia University School of ...

Nebraska’s Ebola isolation and decontamination approach

04-Mar-2015 - The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU), located at the Nebraska Medical Center, has shared its protocol for Ebola patient discharge, handling a patient’s body after death and environmental disinfection in the American Journal of Infection Control. Discharge process for a patient treated for ...

Low influenza vaccination rates among nursing home employees put residents at risk

29-Jan-2015 - Influenza is associated with as many as 7,300 deaths annually in nursing home residents, but the vaccination rate for nursing home staff is only 54 percent, according to a study in the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in ...

Superbug CRE may endure in patients one year after initial infection

12-Mar-2013 - Patients who tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) took an average of 387 days following hospital discharge to be clear of the organism, according to a new study. The study was conducted in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a 700-bed university-affiliated general ...

Infection preventionists know safe care

05-Feb-2013 - There is general agreement among hospital infection preventionists (IPs) with respect to which practices have weak or strong evidence supporting their use to prevent healthcare-associated infection. Furthermore, IPs with certification in infection prevention and control (CIC®) are two to three ...

Hospital Cleaning Protocol Ineffective Against A. Baumannii

05-Dec-2012 - Current hospital cleaning protocol may be inadequate to rid patient rooms of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii, according to a study in the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology ...

Medicare penalty appears to drive hospital infection prevention efforts

Monitoring for unintended consequences of policies is essential, say study authors

03-May-2012 - The 2008 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to cease additional reimbursement to hospitals for certain healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has led to enhanced focus on infection prevention and changes in practice by front-line staff, according to a national survey ...

Infection control certification associated with lower MRSA infection rates

13-Mar-2012 - Hospitals whose infection prevention and control programs are led by a director who is board certified in infection prevention and control have significantly lower rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) than those that are not led by a certified ...

Norovirus is the leading cause of infection outbreaks in U.S. hospitals

02-Feb-2012 - Norovirus, a pathogen that often causes food poisoning and gastroenteritis, was responsible for 18.2 percent of all infection outbreaks and 65 percent of ward closures in U.S. hospitals during a two-year period, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control ...