Copper’s inherent antimicrobial properties could play an increasingly important role in reducing hospital infections, researchers are finding. Placement of copper objects in intensive care unit hospital rooms reduced the number of health care associated infections (HAIs) in patients by more…
At a recent meeting on that problematic nasty pathogen Clostridium difficile, the dramatic reductions of C. diff infections by hospitals in the United Kingdom cast something of a pall over the proceedings. While U.S. epidemiologists pointed to slides to take…
While generally citing continued reductions in key health care associated infections (HAIs), a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance report also revealed some outliers with high infection rates. The report looked at data submitted to the National Healthcare…
Hospitals in the U.S. continue to make progress in the fight against central line-associated bloodstream infections and some surgical site infections, but struggled to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) between 2010 and 2011, according to a new report issued by the…
Adding a bundle of low-cost interventions to surveillance significantly reduces rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in intensive care units in developing countries, researchers found in an international study featured in published reports. “This study is among the first few that have…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering a free, web-streamed training course on reporting health care associated infections (HAIs) on October 2-4, 2012 from 8am-5pm EST. The program focuses on reporting and analyzing HAI data through the CDC’s National…
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…
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…
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…
In yet another sign that infection control is becoming a national priority across a wide range of accreditors, regulators and state and federal agencies, the Joint Commission has created a new web portal to combine its full array of initiatives…