In light of the Tulsa dental debacle and ensuing patient questions and concerns, Noel Brandon Kelsch, RDHAP, of Moor Park CA, a registered dental hygienist in alternative practice and past president of the California Dental Hygienists’ Association, recommends the following…
Citing the risk of continuing hepatitis outbreaks, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) resume inspections of injection safety in ambulatory care centers. Formed in the wake of recurrent outbreaks due…
In what is getting to be a familiar, tragic refrain, the improper use of single-dose vials has resulted in pain clinic patients in Arizona and Delaware acquiring serious bacterial infections that were “completely preventable,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. “Ultimately, ten…
If you are unsure about any question dealing with a single-dose vial of medication beyond its strictly defined use, please assume the answer is ….No. A single-dose or single-use vial is a vial of liquid medication intended for parenteral administration…
In a painfully familiar scenario, 20 patients have tested positive for the same strain of hepatitis C virus in what appears to be a case of blatant disregard for infection control with needles, syringes and vials by a drug-addicted…
Once thought of as shocking outliers, hepatitis outbreaks in ambulatory care settings related to failure of basic needle safety have become the numbing new normal. A recurrent theme in the outbreaks has been patient-to-patient transmission due to failure of health…
As the lines blur between patient safety and worker safety, hospital employee health professionals can expect much more scrutiny, even from regulators who are typically centered on patient care. A new, draft survey tool from the Center for Medicare and…
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…
Well, perhaps that’s a bit overstated, but how often do you accomplish a feat worthy of recognition of the Guinness Book of World Records? There is only one Rolf Bucholz, for example, the world’s most pierced man, who sports 453…
The infamous 2008 hepatitis C virus (HCV) outbreak in a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic was caused primarily by health care workers using blatantly unsafe needle practices that included the reuse of single-dose vials on multiple patients, according to an investigation…