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It’s 10 o’clock. The patient is prepped; the doctor is ready for surgery. Do you know where your containers are? Given the increasing complexity of surgical devices, increasing workloads and reduced staffing, there is no wonder that there has been a rise in equipment related issues leading to potential patient safety issues as well as a rise in surgical site and hospital acquired infections.

Methicillinresistant S. aureus (MRSA) is a concern to all healthcare providers as MRSA infections are associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality. MRSA infected patients have nearly twice the mortality rate, longer hospital stays, and higher health costs than those with methicillinsusceptible S. aureus (MSSA) infections. The outcomes for patients surgically infected with MRSA are worse with mortality rates 3.4 times higher than patients surgically infected with MSSA.(1) MRSA colonized or infected patients readily contaminate their surroundings and healthcare personnel with whom they come in contact. Therefore, MRSA prevention in the hospital setting is a critical component of patient and provider safety.

As of May 12, 2014, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Guinea has reported a cumulative total of 248 clinical cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD), including 171 deaths. Since the last update of May 9, 2014, there have been five new cases confirmed by ebolavirus PCR and no new deaths among the confirmed cases.

Dr. Kerry Clark, associate professor of public health at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and his colleagues have found additional cases of Lyme disease in patients from several states in the southeastern U.S. These cases include two additional Lyme disease Borrelia species recently identified in patients in Florida and Georgia.