Infection Control Today Magazine

Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Researchers Find Four Prognostic Variables as Risk Factors for HA-MRSA Infection in ICU

Healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA) infection in intensive care unit (ICU) patients prolongs ICU stay and causes high mortality. Predicting HA-MRSA infection on admission can strengthen precautions against MRSA transmission. Kazuma ...More
4 weeks ago
Posted in News
Practice Changes in ICUs Face Common Barriers: A Q&A with Amber Welsh, PhD

Researchers from Indiana University have identified common barriers and strategies for successfully implementing practice changes in intensive care units (ICUs). ...More
October 27, 2011
Posted in Articles, Policies and Practice
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
Polymicrobial Pneumonia Occurs Frequently in Patients Admitted to the ICU

The frequency and clinical significance of polymicrobial etiology in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) has been poorly studied. Catia Cilloniz, of the Department of Pneumology at the Institut Clinic del Tórax, Hospital Clinic ...More
September 16, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Early Detection of VAP After ICU Admission is Encouraged

The incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) within the first 48 hours of intensive care unit (ICU) stay has been poorly investigated. Philippe Vanhems, of the infection control unit at Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, France, and colleagues, sought to estimate ...More
September 6, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Barriers, Strategies for Implementing Practice Changes in ICUs are Identified

Researchers from Indiana University have identified common barriers and strategies for successfully implementing practice changes in intensive care units (ICUs). The study, published in the August issue of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, reveals ...More
August 11, 2011
Posted in News, Policies and Practice
Hand Hygiene, Environmental Cleaning Minimize Spread of MRSA in the ICU

Researchers from the University College London Hospitals, the Health Protection Agency, and Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, all in London, UK, emphasize that to help minimize the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within an intensive care unit ...More
July 6, 2011
Posted in News, Environmental Hygiene, Hand Hygiene
Checklists Can Help Physicians Care for Critically Ill

Caring for patients in a medical intensive care unit in a hospital and flying a 747 are complicated tasks that require tracking thousands of important details, some of which could get overlooked. That's why the pilot has a checklist and a copilot to make sure nothing slips ...More
June 22, 2011
Posted in News
Does Gender Influence Surgical ICU Outcomes Related to Sepsis?

Impact of gender on severe infections is in highly controversial discussion with natural survival advantage of females described in animal studies but contradictory to human data. Irit Nachtigall, of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at Charité ...More
June 21, 2011
Posted in News
International Team Works Out Secrets of Dramatic Reduction in Infection at 100 ICUs

A team of social scientists and medical and nursing researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom has pinpointed how a program, which ran in more than 100 hospital intensive care units in Michigan, dramatically reduced the rates of potentially deadly central ...More
June 17, 2011
Posted in News