Selecting the Ideal Healthcare Disinfectant: Balancing Efficacy & Surface Compatibility
In healthcare facilities, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces is essential for reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Surfaces, equipment and medical devices found throughout the environment are prone to contamination with healthcare-associated pathogens, many of which can survive on surfaces for prolonged periods and contribute to transmission.
Q & A: How To Respond To The WHO’s Top 12 Superbugs List
This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent public health needs,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s assistant director-general for health systems and innovation. Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.
The Cooperative High Reliability Organization: Approaching a Zero-Defect Culture
How the U.S. Air Force’s new reliability model focusing on task saturation improved antibiotic stewardship and overall value-based care quickly and cost-effectively.
Quick, Cheap, and Effective: Oral Care Makes Serious Dent in Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Cases
If you work in healthcare, then you’re probably aware that there’s room for improvement. You’re also probably aware of the deluge of strategies, solutions, recommendations, and guidance on enhancing quality and patient safety—all of which require time, money, equipment, metrics, and manpower you may not have.
MRSA Rates Dropped 87% in VA Hospital ICUs
Institutional culture changes over an eight-year period made infection prevention and control “everyone’s business,” researchers say. Active surveillance was a major driver.
Grilled About Deadly Superbug Outbreaks, Execs At Scope Maker Olympus Takes Fifth
Three senior executives at scope maker Olympus Corp., which is under federal investigation for its role in superbug outbreaks, repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned recently about internal company emails.
Unraveling Diagnostic Error: Delving Deeply to Identify Hidden Human Factors
The challenges we face in improving patient safety and decreasing healthcare-related harm and death remain urgent, compelling, and undeniable. Despite our considerable efforts over the past 15 years, and some very notable advances, mostly resulting from increased standardization of processes and the use of checklists, the overall magnitude of the problem remains enormous.
3 Essential Factors for Reducing Vascular Access Infection Risk
By Pat Parks, MD, PhD Healthcare leaders and care providers charged with the difficult task of preventing infections are no strangers to the incredibly unfortunate loss of life and staggering financial burden of healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Some of the deadliest HAIs are central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI). According to the … Continued
5 Types of PPE and How Your Staff is Misusing Them
By John Palmer Train your workers how to use the tools that protect them. One of the first things that a student learns in medical school, one of the first thing a worker learned on the job, and perhaps the most important thing you, as a safety professional can be a pest about with your … Continued
As the Threat of Sepsis Intensifies, Experts Push For a Faster Response
A deadly infection that has lingered throughout healthcare for the last several decades is finding a foothold at the national level thanks to recently updated definitions that offer clinicians a more targeted approach for detection and prevention.