Key Tips for Joint Commission Hygiene Standards As of January 1, 2018, if a Joint Commission surveyor sees just one clinician fail to clean his or her hands while in the process of direct patient care, the hospital will be cited with a deficiency, resulting in a Requirement for Improvement under the Infection Prevention and […]
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C. difficile, Hospital-Acquired Infection #1 C. difficile infection (CDI) is among the most serious of nosocomial infections, affecting nearly half a million Americans each year. The leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrheal infection, C. difficile spreads via spores that are highly resistant to physical and biochemical cleaning agents. Approximately 75 percent of CDI cases are acquired
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“We were really hoping it wasn’t here yet, to be honest with you,” Tom Chiller, MD, MPHTM, chief of the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the CDC, said in an interview with CIDRAP. “This is definitely a hospital-transmitted organism.” The Center for Disease Control has outlined three main reasons for the increased concern: They also suggest a
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Children are better behaved when their parents are watching them, but social science suggests that this tendency to modify behavior when under observation does not disappear with age. It is known as the Hawthorne (or observer) Effect, and it can spell trouble for healthcare providers if they ignore the impact of this phenomenon on
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We’ve all been warned about antibiotic resistance and know that healthcare professionals should be careful not to over prescribe antibiotics. Further, hospitals worldwide know the importance of sanitizing instrumentation and hands before operations. Yet, despite this collective knowledge, we’re seeing a global rise in superbugs, bacteria that are resistant to many types of antibiotics. Both
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Hand dryers have been considered an environmentally-friendly hygienic solution to hand drying, however a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut at Quinnipiac University have found that is not the case. In fact, their research points to quite the opposite conclusion—that hand dryers in public restrooms actually spread bacteria onto freshly cleaned
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The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is rising rapidly. In fact, data from the global business consulting firm Accenture indicates that AI in clinical health is expected to grow by 40 percent each year over the next five years – generating staggering annual savings of $150 billion for the US healthcare economy by
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It’s no surprise that 32 percent of healthcare workers report that they do not get enough sleep. Hospitals provide around-the-clock care, meaning nursing staff may work long hours and/or have stressful shift work schedules (shifts outside of the standard 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. work day). The effects of fatigue vary, but almost always result
Dilemmas in Healthcare: Nurse Shift Fatigue Read More »
The use of latex gloves is a highly effective infection control measure adopted by hospitals worldwide. While gloves work well to minimize the spread of infectious diseases, they are designed to augment, not replace, basic hygiene practices, such as handwashing. Recent research published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology suggests that for a significant proportion
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Hospital administrators regularly address questions larger than efficiency and productivity when it comes to helping people live healthier lives. At the same time, public policies can shift sharply with little notice as new information and technology become widely available. Leaders in healthcare are expected to react faster than those in other industries simply because it
How Public Policy Impacts the Way Hospitals Make Decisions Read More »
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