This March, nursing supervisor Nancy Swift was shot to death in her office at UAB Highlands Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Swift had been reprimanding a central sterile supply worker, Trevis Coleman, when he pulled out a gun and fired on her. Afterwards, Coleman killed himself, but not before...
There’s a case where a World War II POW committed suicide by hitting himself in the head with an empty metal canteen after days without water. While that happened in the hold of a Japanese prison boat, not a hospital, it highlights how resourceful a suicidal person can be when it comes to...
With the end of the opioid/painkiller crisis nowhere in sight, it’s up to providers and facilities to lead the charge.
More than three dozen bills addressing various concerns about the opioid epidemic are before committees in the Senate and House. The Centers for Disease Control and...
Sepsis mortality rates increase quickly when left untreated, even if it’s only for a few hours. The difficulty facing providers is that there isn’t a simple test for sepsis. Instead, they have to watch for patterns and symptoms that could indicate sepsis. As a result, it’s common to have...
This March, a team of experts working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study on antibiotic prescription habits in outpatient facilities. The study, which appeared in the Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology journal, showed that there are...
The three steps an Oklahoma hospital used to bring its C. diff rate to zero
Using a multifaceted approach, Stillwater (Oklahoma) Medical Center was able to beat one of the most frequently reported healthcare-associated infections. The 177-bed facility hasn’t seen a single hospital-...
This February, Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago won the Illinois Health and Hospital Association’s (IHA) “Innovation Challenge: Partners in Progress Award.” In just two years, the facility cut its hospital-acquired infection (HAI) rate by 90% and saved itself $498,000.
Surveyors didn’t always punish healthcare organizations (HCO) if one of their employees was caught not following proper hand hygiene rules. So long as the organization had an otherwise compliant hand hygiene program, they were let off with a (pardon the pun) slap on the wrist.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given hospitals aggressive goals on HAI reduction. By 2020, the department wants CAUTI rates to be cut 50% in acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers.
