Quality Improvement

Joint Commission Takes Aim at HAIs

Teaming up with top hospitals and health systems across the country to use new methods to find the causes of and put a stop to dangerous and potentially deadly breakdowns in patient care, the Joint Commission is launching the Center for Transforming Healthcare. The ...More
September 10, 2009
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene
The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals: Implications for Infection Preventionists

Editor's note: To access part two of this two-part article, CLICK HERE.IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Joint Commission is revising the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) and the 2009 Universal Protocol to clarify language and make sure that they are relevant to the settings ...More
July 8, 2009
Posted in Articles
Ambulatory Care: The Challenges for Infection Prevention

Ambulatory care centers and outpatient surgery facilities all seem like ideal settings to receive healthcare. A patient can be seen, treated and sent back home in half the time of a hospital visit. Therefore, it might appear that the risk of infection would be lower because ...More
July 8, 2009
Posted in Articles
Hand Hygiene Monograph Released by The Joint Commission

To help healthcare organizations target their efforts in measuring hand hygiene performance, The Joint Commission is releasing “Measuring Hand Hygiene Adherence: Overcoming the Challenges.” The ...More
May 1, 2009
Posted in News, Hand Hygiene
Harnessing Automation to Give Your QA Process the White Glove Test

Automating quality assurance (QA) represents a cornerstone to effective sterile processing and infection prevention, two necessary healthcare functions in caring for patients. Patricia Koncur, corporate director of central sterile processing at Detroit Medical Center (DMC), ...More
April 29, 2009
Posted in Articles, Disinfection & Sterilization
JCR to Host Hospital-Acquired Conditions Conference

New Medicare financial incentives have many hospitals scrambling to find solutions to common problems such as surgical site infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and falls. The event, Hospital-Acquired Conditions: Solutions to ...More
April 21, 2009
Posted in News
Making Sense of Evidence-Based Practices

If ever there was a buzzword in healthcare currently, it might just be “evidence-based practices.” But does the average healthcare worker understand the term’s purpose and significance? Ward (2000) notes, “Evidence-based practice is seen as a way of ...More
January 29, 2009
Posted in Articles
Reducing Surgical Site Infections

By definition, a surgical site infection (SSI) is an infection that develops within 30 days after an operation or within one year if an implant was placed and the infection appears to be related to the surgery.1 Post-operative SSIs are the most common healthcare-associated ...More
March 1, 2008
Posted in Articles, Hand Hygiene
Bundling is Better, Experts Say

It’s no secret the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) was on to something big when it launched its 100,000 Lives Campaign. Since its inception, countless interventions have been implemented in health systems across the country, and countless lives have been ...More
January 24, 2008
Posted in Articles
Hospital Eliminates Dangerous Bloodstream Infections in ICU

HERRIMAN, Utah -- A California hospital's innovative clinical protocol eliminated a potentially deadly infection for more than a year, according to an article in the December issue of the Journal of the Association for Vascular Access (JAVA). The hospital's success at ...More
January 21, 2008
Posted in News