Most infection control (IC) professionals can recite their No. 1 goal in their sleep: zero infections. Others also dream of 100% compliance with central line bundles, isolation precautions, and hand hygiene. The key for Joint Commission standard IC.01.04.01 is to prioritize...
In 2008, CMS published a ruling to stop reimbursing hospitals for certain healthcare-associated infections (HAI), including catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). Four years later, that decision has made...
It was a simple mistake she's still ashamed she made, but luckily when Elizabeth Butler, BA, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts, took the stitches out of the wrong woman, the patient was not severely injured. Although Butler has followed up with the...
Despite already being below the national average on patient falls, Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center's staff and leadership still felt falls were happening too often. The small but busy 25-bed critical access hospital pulled together to implement many tried-and-true methods, and in the process...
Preventing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections: A Global Challenge, A Global Perspective, is the monograph The Joint Commission released to help healthcare organizations gain traction on the fight against healthcare-associated infections.
Editor's note: Columnist Catherine Hinz, MHA, works as a leader in patient safety at HealthEast Care System in St. Paul, Minn. Previously, she worked at PatientSafe Solutions, Inc., and has completed a patient safety internship with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality...
In today's world of healthcare, hospitals have to measure nearly everything related to quality and patient safety. There are lots of metrics, many tied to reimbursement. Some are very specific, and some are reported to multiple outside agencies. There is no doubt that hospitals...
High-touch surface areas remain a constant concern for infection preventionists (IP). Regular and terminal cleaning can only be done so many times a day, and surfaces like bed rails, doorknobs, and call buttons are constantly harboring infectious organisms.
