The Joint Commission requires healthcare facilities to train employees annually. Part of that training includes best practices for infection control (IC), but effective training requires infection preventionists (IP) to employ training methods based on evidence-based best practices that yield...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the arrival of "Get Smart About Antibiotics Week" (observed November 14-20, 2011) by launching a new antibiotic tracking system that will allow hospitals to monitor antibiotic usage and compare themselves to other hospitals in the...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 23, Issue 2
True or False: Although hand washing is known to be one of the best ways to reduce the spread of infection, few hospitals have reached 90% or higher in hand washing compliance.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has released six reports on data from California hospitals on a range of healthcare-associated infections, including central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and surgical...
Most hospitals have created some sort of campaign to raise levels of hand hygiene compliance-from creating signs and uploading sing-along viral videos to deploying "secret shoppers" around the nation to sneakily observe who may or may not be washing their hands.
Oncology clinics traditionally house some of the most vulnerable patients when it comes to contracting dangerous infections, further compounding the already debilitating effects of cancer treatments like chemotherapy. Because of this, it's doubly important that oncology clinics...
The Affordable Care Act required the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a National Quality Strategy that would make care safe, effective, and affordable.
