Editor's Note The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in October announced new targets for reducing healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in acute care hospitals. The new targets are part of the agency’s "National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination." The targets use data…

Read More

Editor's Note A study by Duke University researchers, which followed 40 ICU nurses, found 22 cases in which at least one of five drug-resistant bacteria was transmitted from the patient or the room to the nurse’s scrubs or from the patient to the room. The study was presented October 27 at…

Read More

Editor's Note In a study on mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that a coating made with antibiotic-releasing nanofibers can prevent bacterial infections after total joint surgery. After 14 days, mice that received implants without the antibiotic coating all had bacteria in infected tissue around the joint, and 80% had…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, surgical site infection (SSI) rates were similar for general surgery patients whether hair was clipped or not. Of 1,543 patients included in the study, 768 were in the clipped group and 775 were in the not-clipped group. The overall rate of SSIs was 6.12% in…

Read More

Editor's Note The addition of patient-generated wound photographs to existing data significantly improved diagnostic accuracy of surgical site infections (SSIs) and prevented overtreatment in this study. When photographs were added, overall diagnostic accuracy improved from 67% to 76%, and specificity increased from 77% to 92%, but sensitivity did not significantly…

Read More

Recent outbreaks of deadly infections linked to flexible endoscopes have made headlines, and the Food and Drug Administration has issued strict guidelines for reprocessing these devices. However, cleaning and disinfection may not be effective under the recommended protocols, says Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, epidemiologist and president and chief executive officer,…

Read More

In the United States and globally, the use of reprocessed medical devices labeled and marketed by their original equipment manufacturers as “for single use only” has become commonplace. Large health systems have saved many millions of dollars annually and diverted many hundreds of tons of medical waste by using reprocessed…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced October 12 that it is seeking input on proposed revisions to its National Patient Safety Goals on healthcare associated infections (HAIs) for ambulatory care and office-based surgery and hospitals and critical access hospitals. The proposed revisions address surgical site infections and central line-associated blood…

Read More

Editor's Note Physicians at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, announced on September 28 that the Zika virus may be transmitted in sweat and tears, NBC News reports. The case of a Utah man who infected his 38-year old son before he died in July leaves…

Read More

Editor's Note The Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado) is notifying 267 patients from the school’s medical clinic and the Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System that they are at risk of infections from improperly processed gastrointestinal endoscopy equipment, according to the September 21 MilitaryTimes. Air Force officials say…

Read More