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If infection preventionists can work their way out of the current wilderness of change, there is some feeling they may be poised for a leadership role in a health care system becoming painfully aware of the power of prevention.
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Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has launched a "Flu Vaccination Challenge" this season targeting health care workers, but organizers only underscored the current woeful situation in setting the immunization goal.
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Proposed state laws in Nevada in the wake of a highly-publicized hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas include proposals to hire infection preventionists (IPs) as consultants to oversee practice in freestanding clinics.
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In a finding that will increase national calls for oversight of ambulatory care settings, seven patients reportedly acquired hepatitis C infection while undergoing stress tests at a cardiology practice in Larinburgh, NC.
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Success has raised the bar. No sooner did infection preventionists (IPs) begin demonstrating that it was actually possible to drive certain infection rates down to a vanishing point when federal payers essentially said, "Good, keep them at zero because we are not paying for them."
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Increasing the possibility of hospital outbreaks via undiagnosed cases, measles infection has hit the United States at epidemic levels this year. More measles cases were reported in the first seven months of 2008 than during the same period in any year since 1996, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The Joint Commission new national patient safety goal to prevent surgical-site infections (SSIs; NPSG.07.05.01) includes a requirement to look for SSIs out to 30 days after the procedure raising the difficult but critical issue of post- discharge surveillance.
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The Joint Commission new 2009 national patient safety goal to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections (CA-BSIs; NPSG.07.04.01) calls for use of use of a common-sense but once controversial checklist to ensure a standardized protocol is followed for central venous catheter insertion.
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The Minnesota Department of Health recommends the following for discontinuing contact isolation and "removing patient flags" for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus:
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As the Joint Commission makes preventing surgical-site infections (SSIs) a national patient safety goal next year some infection preventionists may be more ready than others to meet the full panoply of phased-in requirements.