News

A new pitfall trap designed to capture bed bugs is more effective than those currently on the market, according to the authors of an article appearing in the next issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology. The authors also found that traps baited with an experimental chemical lure mixture caught 2.2 times as many bed bugs as traps without the lure. Their findings suggest that an effective and affordable bed bug monitor can be made incorporating the new pitfall trap design, a chemical lure, and a sugar-and-yeast mixture to produce carbon dioxide, which is also known to attract bed bugs.

An aging population is swelling the ranks of long-term care (LTC) residents in this country, and the need is greater than ever for the implementation of infection prevention and control in these facilities. Barriers to good practice are numerous for both the frontline healthcare worker and the infection preventionist (IP), but these can be combated with the right skill sets and knowledge, emphasizes Gail Bennett, RN, MSN, CIC, of Rome, Ga.-based ICP Associates, Inc. who has spent many years consulting to LTC facilities and health systems across the country and who was a co-author of the SHEA/APIC guideline on infection prevention and control in the long-term care facility.

Hospitals constantly struggle to combat hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). In recent years, the development and use of rapid diagnostic testing for these infectious diseases has helped to alleviate some of the issue, allowing healthcare providers to screen patients at the point of admission and take necessary precautions for carriers. Hospitals also want to know this information as quickly as possible in order to document infections. They do not receive additional payments for conditions that were not present at the time of admission, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website.