Hospitals are subject to clear standards and procedures for infection control, but germs don’t care whether they live in an operating room or a medical office exam room. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do. It recently issued “Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care” for all manner….
Continue ReadingInfections
‘Superbug’ deaths spur probe into prostate biopsies
As an increasing number of patients being tested for prostate cancer contract potentially lethal drug-resistant infections, some physicians are rethinking their approach to prostate cancer screening. Several studies released in the past year reveal that infectious complications from biopsies have more than doubled in less than a decade, and a growing percentage of patients who….
Continue ReadingHospital scrubs: “Fashionable” but a suspected source of infection
You see them walking around hospitals, and sometimes even on the street: health care workers wearing surgical “scrubs.” It’s something of a fashion statement, but also a potential carrier of infections, yet no one has really carefully studied the problem to know for sure. The old adage among patient safety advocates that “you can’t improve….
Continue ReadingA Gentler Option to Barking: “Did You Wash Your Hands?”
Hospitalized patients are right to be terrified of getting a serious infection from the hands of their doctors or nurses. But is there any option to barking at everyone who comes in your room: “Did you wash your hands?”? Yes, says gastroenterologist Steven Kussin, author of the forthcoming book “Doctor, Your Patient Will See You….
Continue ReadingAs much as 45% of all U.S. health care costs due to medical errors, studies show
Medical mistakes account for between 18 and 45 cents of every health care dollar spent in the U.S., and a medical error or adverse effect occurs in one out of every three hospital admissions, researchers say. According to studies published in the journal Health Affairs, the single most expensive cause of harm is infection after….
Continue ReadingFewer central line infections in ICU, but not in other wards
The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) caused by tubes inserted into major blood vessels decreased significantly between 2001 to 2009, but unacceptably high rates of infection are still occurring for patients in other hospital units and for dialysis patients, government researchers say. Central lines are tubes that are usually placed in….
Continue ReadingMaryland’s Hospital Infection Effort Includes Financial Penalties
The state of Maryland is putting some financial sting in its efforts to get hospitals to lower the number of patients who contract deadly infections while hospitalized. Nine hospitals are being fined a total of $2.1 million for having higher than usual infection rates. The hospitals are: in the Washington, DC area: Prince George’s Hospital….
Continue ReadingOhio hospitals save $13 million by cutting infections
More than two dozen hospitals in Ohio that collaborated to reduce hospital infections and drug mix-ups saved $12.8 million in health care expenses by doing so, according to a recently released report. The Solutions for Patient Safety initiative, launched by a coalition of business and hospital groups in January 2009, included 17 hospitals acute care….
Continue ReadingBlood sugar monitors: One to a patient, if you want to avoid infection
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning healthcare professionals that sharing blood glucose monitoring machines carries the risk of transmitting the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and other infectious diseases. Their simple advice: One monitor per diabetic patient. In recent years, the number of reported HBV….
Continue ReadingAlarm sounded over drug-resistant bladder bacteria
Infectious disease specialists are raising the alarm over a variant of the e.coli bacteria that is resistant to most of the antibiotics used to treat bladder infections and could be responsible for more than 3,000 deaths a year. E.coli ST131, an aggressive strain of multi-drug-resistant e.coli bacteria, may be responsible for as many as 1….
Continue Reading