Bloodstream Infections

The Midline Intravenous Catheter: Meeting the Challenges of Patient Safety and Cost Control

The last decade of evolution in the efforts to reduce healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) has seen a multitude of new initiatives and requirements that address, among other issues, the elimination of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). Organizations ...More
September 24, 2009
Posted in Articles
HAI Prevention Programs Require Better Adherence to Proven Strategies

When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its “Action Plan To Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections,” earlier this year, it not only cast new attention on this old problem, but it helped identify the key actions needed to achieve and ...More
September 24, 2009
Posted in Articles
Chlorhexidine Bathing Can Protect Patients from Superbugs, Study Shows

Giving critically ill hospital patients a daily bath with a mild, soapy solution of the same antibacterial agent used by surgeons to scrub in before an operation can dramatically cut down, by as much as 73 percent, the number of patients who develop potentially deadly ...More
September 4, 2009
Posted in News
AVA Meeting Panel to Highlight New Standards for IV Catheter Disinfection

How to meet new infection control guidelines from the Joint Commission and those contained in the SHEA/IDSA Compendium will be the focus of a panel discussion at the upcoming annual meeting of the Association for Vascular Access (AVA). Discussing the new guidelines ...More
September 2, 2009
Posted in News, Disinfection & Sterilization
CareFusion Launches New CA-BSI Prevention Web Site

As a market leader committed to educating the clinical community about patient and clinician safety, CareFusion is introducing the Getting to Zero BSI Web site to provide timely, evidence-based resources to help guide clinicians and their healthcare facilities and to speed ...More
August 25, 2009
Posted in News
Hospital Checklists Need a Reality Check, According to New Study

A team of sociologists and healthcare researchers is calling for greater understanding of how hospital and medical checklists can be used to improve patient safety. Furthermore, say the authors of a commentary in the journal The Lancet, widespread deployment of medical ...More
August 20, 2009
Posted in News
How Meningitis Bacteria Attack the Brain

A specific protein on the surface of a common bacterial pathogen allows the bacteria to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain, initiating the deadly infection known as meningitis. The new finding, which may guide development of improved vaccines to protect those most ...More
August 18, 2009
Posted in News
Hepatitis C Virus Carriers Experience Substantial Increase in Mortality

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a bloodborne disease that causes inflammation of the liver and to which there is currently no vaccine available. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3 percent of the world’s population, approximately 170 million people, are ...More
July 30, 2009
Posted in News
APIC Promotes Safe Injection Practices to Prevent Bloodborne Infections

In response to continued reports of infection control flaws in outpatient healthcare clinics that have put thousands of patients at risk for serious infections, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) today announced its strong support ...More
July 30, 2009
Posted in News
Studies: CHG Disk Shows Strong Potential to Fight Infection

Clinicians need every infection-preventing trick they can possibly get, but the “tricks,” of course, need to be proven in studies and experience before they are touted. One such tool that seems to have proven its way is BIOPATCH,® a disk that so far seems ...More
July 23, 2009
Posted in Articles