An inspector calls: CMS moves closer to unannounced hospital infection control surveys
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to hone an infection control survey slated for use in the nation’s hospitals by the end of the year, using expert feedback and “pre-testing” results to create a 42-page tool that…
APIC encourages IPs to test drive new competency model
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology is seeking feedback on its new “competency model” for the profession, which has gone from relative obscurity to increasing national attention as health care associated infections (HAIs) have become a much-discussed…
Stay tuned for tweets, posts and news alerts from APIC conference in San Antonio
If you can’t make it to the upcoming APIC conference — or even if you can — Hospital Infection Control & Prevention will be providing breaking coverage and live reports from San Antonio via this blog, our exclusive newswire reports…
APIC awards Ruth Carrico its highest honor
As a veteran of the ever-changing infection prevention beat, I usually call Ruth Carrico when some complicated multi-faceted issue could stand a dose of uncommon sense. Years ago, I was trying to reach her for a story and she came…
APIC unveils a four-fold path to IP competency
Infection control nurses, practitioners, professionals, preventionists – the name has changed over the years but never the core mission: patient safety. Today’s infection preventionists may be making darn sure a urinary catheter is promptly taken out one day and testifying…
CDC reemphasizes single-use vials means one patient only
Drug shortages and lean economic times may tempt some to scavenge that remnants of doses left in a “single dose” vials. After a staggering series of hepatitis outbreaks over the last decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is…
CMS cut$ lead to change in practice, unintended consequences
Money talks. The 2008 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to cut reimbursement for certain health care-associated infections (HAIs) has led to enhanced focus on infection prevention and changes in practice by front-line staff, according to…
Vandy closely tracking occupational infections
Closely tracking occupational infections among health care workers helps Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville detect clusters and prevent further transmission. Tuberculosis remains the primary infectious disease threat to health care workers, with exposures occurring from delays in diagnosis, according…
Measles reaches 15-year high, 4 HCWs infected at work
Measles cases in the U.S. rose to the highest level in 15 years in 2011, posing a particular risk to both hospital patients and health care workers. Last year, there were 222 reported cases and 17 outbreaks. That included four…
TB at record low, waiting for us to claim victory
“The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” –William Faulkner Was it not so long ago in a universe strikingly similar to ours that federal regulators were calling for a comprehensive national regulation to protect health care…