Infection Control Today Magazine

Patient/Worker Safety

The safety and protection of patients and healthcare workers alike can be protected by following evidence-based principles and practices designed to prevent adverse events, medical errors and infections. Aseptic technique, hand hygiene, environmental hygiene, proper disinfection and sterilization and other interventions are designed to prevent or curtail events that results in excessive healthcare costs, increased length of hospitalization, hazards to occupational health and loss of institutional accreditation.

Medicare Study Shows Most Medical Errors Go Unreported

A new study released the first week in January 2012 by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that hospital employees are only reporting 14 percent of all medical errors and usually don't change their practices ...More
January 9, 2012
Posted in News
Study Highlights Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Patients and Healthcare Providers

A new UCLA study shows that physicians who work shorter shifts are less likely to make mistakes during medical procedures. Dr. Christian De Virgilio, lead investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor- UCL A Medical Center (LA BioMed), led a team ...More
December 21, 2011
Posted in News
Pre-Surgery Exam Rates Vary Widely Among Hospitals

Hospitals vary greatly in the number of patients who see an internal medicine specialist before major non-cardiac surgery, with rates ranging from 5 percent of patients to 90 percent, new research has found. The findings are important because they suggest there are no ...More
December 21, 2011
Posted in News
Partnership for Patients Initiative to Improve Hospital Care

Hospitals across the country will have new resources and support to make healthcare safer and less costly by targeting and reducing the millions of preventable injuries and complications from healthcare-acquired conditions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ...More
December 21, 2011
Posted in News
Hospital Safety Climate Linked to Both Patient and Nurse Injuries, Study Reveals

A safe working environment for nurses is also a safe environment for the patients in their care, according to a new study led by public health researchers at Drexel University. Researchers, led by Dr. Jennifer Taylor, an assistant professor in Drexel’s School of Public ...More
November 7, 2011
Posted in News, Policies and Practice
Healthcare Worker Risks from Short Peripheral Catheter Insertion

Insertion of short peripheral intravenous catheters is an extremely frequent procedure in many healthcare settings. In fact, an estimated 330 million catheters are sold annually in the United States. Nurses are very familiar with the risk of these devices to patients ...More
August 10, 2011
Posted in Articles, Infections & Pathogens
Survey Reveals High Rate of Noncompliance with PPE Protocols

In a survey released by Kimberly-Clark Professional, 89 percent of safety professionals said they had observed workers not wearing safety equipment when they should have been. Twenty-nine percent said this had happened on numerous occasions. "This high rate of noncompliance ...More
July 29, 2011
Posted in News, PPE & Standard Precautions
Integrate Health Protection and Promotion for Healthier Workplaces

Employers who integrate their safety initiatives with their health and wellness programming have the potential to improve the overall health and productivity of their workforces, according to a paper published recently in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental ...More
July 27, 2011
Posted in News
Hepatitis B Vaccination for Healthcare Students Lags Behind Recommendations

A study in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), suggests that documentation of hepatitis B vaccination for healthcare students may fall short of current recommendations. ...More
July 22, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
HCWs Can Protect Themselves With PPE, Standard Precautions Compliance

Researchers in Brazil sought to analyze the main occupational risks to which that healthcare professionals are subjected in their work activities, as well as explore measures that can prevent these accidents. Da Silva, et al. employed a method integrative review of the ...More
July 19, 2011
Posted in News, PPE & Standard Precautions