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In a Quick Safety message to its accredited facilities in May, the Joint Commission (JC) alerted healthcare organizations regarding surveyor observations of increased non-compliance with standard IC.02.02.01, which requires accredited facilities to reduce the risk of infections associated with medical equipment, devices and supplies. Last year, according to the Joint Commission, this aforementioned standard was one of the top five non-compliant requirements for JC-accredited hospitals, critical-access hospitals, and ambulatory and office-based surgery facilities.

A nasal brush test can rapidly and accurately diagnose Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), an incurable and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder, according to a study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their Italian colleagues.

Wrapping wound dressings around fingers and toes can be tricky, but for burn victims, guarding them against infection is critical. Today, scientists are reporting the development of novel, ultrathin coatings called nanosheets that can cling to the body's most difficult-to-protect contours and keep bacteria at bay. The researchers are speaking about their materials, which they've tested on mice, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

A lung-damaging bacterium turns the body's antibody response in its favor, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

In May 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), under the auspices of the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System final rule, introduced revisions to the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) Conditions for Coverage (42 CFR 416.2 – 416.52). Included in the new conditions for coverage (CFCs) was a rigorous focus on demonstrated infection prevention and control knowledge and practice in an ASC. In 416.51 Conditions for coverage-Infection control, an ASC must maintain an infection control program that minimizes infections and communicable diseases. The facility must provide a functional and sanitary environment for the provision of surgical services by adhering to professionally acceptable standards of practice, and the infection prevention program must include documentation that the ASC has considered, selected and implemented nationally recognized infection control guidelines, such as those issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The program must be implemented under the direction of a designated, qualified and licensed professional who has training in infection control; it must be an integral part of the ASC’s quality assessment and performance improvement program; and it must contain a plan of action for preventing, identifying and managing infections and communicable diseases and for immediately implementing corrective and preventive measures that result in improvement.