AORN Expects to Revise its Guideline for OR Headwear
Lisa Spruce, AORN’s director of evidence-based perioperative practice, tells OSHA Healthcare Advisor that AORN will still recommend complete hair coverage in that revised guideline, but “there’s not going to be a recommendation on which head covering.”
IHI Hosts Panel to Develop Patient Safety Action Plan
The committee was established in the wake of last year’s call to action issued by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), which merged with the IHI in 2017. The call to action urged a coordinated response from the healthcare and public health sectors to reduce medical harm.
OSHA Cites Facility for Failing to Protect Staff From Workplace Violence
In the latest announced penalty, an acute care inpatient behavioral health facility in Bradenton, Florida is facing more than $71,000 in fines for “failing to institute controls to prevent patients from verbal and physical threats of assault, including punches, kicks, and bites; and from using objects as weapons,” according to information released by the U.S. Department of Labor.
CDC Says Heparin Syringes May Have Caused Bloodstream Infection Outbreak
The infections occurred in seriously ill children who received intravenous medications through a catheter or central line in Tennessee, Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio. No deaths have been associated with the infections and the number of cases is dwindling, the CDC said.
New Ebola Outbreak in the Congo: Is Your Organization Pandemic-Ready?
At the moment, the only confirmed current cases of Ebola were reported in a remote location in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; as of Monday, the World Health Organization reported 39 suspected, probable, and confirmed cases, including 19 deaths.
National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.
Joint Commission Appoints New Director of Infection Prevention and Control
According to a Joint Commission release, she has worked for more than 30 years in infection prevention and control in hospitals and long-term care facilities, along with eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Recently, Garcia-Houchins was director of infection control at the University of Chicago Medicine and was a consultant for Joint Commission Resources.
Report: Insect Infestation Problem Forces VA Hospital to Delay Surgeries
The television station conducted a hidden-camera investigation and discovered that the hospital installed at least 200 fly traps to deal with an infestation of phorid flies in operating rooms, dating back to 2016.
Study Finds Overworked Nurses Can Lead to 40% Increase in Patient Death Risk
When the workload was above the optimal level, the study found the risk of a patient safety incident grew by 8% to 32%, while the risk of patient mortality increased by 43%.
Task Force Weighs in on Bouffant Hat vs. Skull Cap Debate
The task force wrote in a joint statement: “Over the past two years, as recommendations were implemented, it became increasingly apparent that in practice, covering the ears is not practical for surgeons and anesthesiologists and in many cases counterproductive to their ability to perform optimally in the OR.”