Infection Control Today Magazine

Healthcare-Associated Infections

Hospital Compare Website Now Includes CLABSI Data

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announces today that its Hospital Compare website now includes central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) data reported from hospital ICUs to CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). In many places, ...More
Yesterday
Posted in News
CLABSIs at Hospitals Disclosed Nationwide

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is now disclosing for the first time how hospitals across the country compare when it comes to central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in intensive care units. CLABSI information for each hospital is ...More
2 weeks ago
Posted in News
Healthcare Infection Society Issues New Guidelines to Prevent Infection in Minor Surgery

New guidelines from the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) aimed at minimizing surgical infection in day centers (outpatient facilities) and primary care are now published in the Journal of Hospital Infection. "These guidelines are the first ever published guidance in the ...More
2 weeks ago
Posted in News, Policies and Practice
Few Hospitals Aggressively Combat CAUTIs

Hospitals are working harder than ever to prevent healthcare-acquired infections, but a nationwide survey shows few are aggressively combating the most common one – catheter-associated urinary tract infections. In the survey by the University of Michigan Health System and ...More
December 8, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Awards to Recognize Best Practices in Reducing and Eliminating HAIs

Teams of critical care professionals and healthcare institutions with a record of reducing or eliminating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are encouraged to submit their best practices to a national awards program. Now in its second year, the annual awards program ...More
November 18, 2011
Posted in News, Policies and Practice
AHRQ Awards $34 Million to Expand Fight Against HAIs

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces that it has awarded $34 million in fiscal year 2011 for grants and contracts to hospitals, academic medical institutions and healthcare research organizations to expand the fight against healthcare-associated ...More
November 4, 2011
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene, Infections & Pathogens
Drugs Used to Tackle HAIs Can Increase Post-Op Complications

The introduction of new antibiotic regimes to tackle healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) such as C. difficile, must take into account the possibility of increased infections following specific surgical procedures. That is the key finding of a study published in the ...More
October 31, 2011
Posted in News
Surgeons Find That Drug-Resistant Infections Not Always Linked to Higher Death Rates

The rates of antibiotic-resistant infections in the intensive care unit (ICU) have increased over the last decade. But new research from the University of Virginia suggests that surgical ICU death rates may, in fact, be declining and that drug-resistant infections are not ...More
October 25, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Slide Show: HAI Data

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Steering Committee for the Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections intends to review on an annual basis progress toward achieving the nine 5-year (end goal of December 31, 2013) goals or targets in the HHS Action ...More
October 19, 2011
Posted in Galleries, Infections & Pathogens, Policies and Practice
Public Reporting in Reducing ICU Infections: Leapfrog Group Responds to CDC Infection Report

Today, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that hospitals and other healthcare facilities are doing a better job of preventing four common infections, the Leapfrog Group's CEO, Leah Binder, pointed to the importance of transparency and public ...More
October 19, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens, Policies and Practice