News

The use of a medical or surgical checklist is now a familiar activity for many healthcare professionals, but experts are asking if they are impacting patient outcomes and contributing to patient safety in a meaningful way. And now, the data from a new study are indicating that a Johns Hopkins-led safety checklist program that virtually eliminated bloodstream infections in intensive care units throughout Michigan appears to have also reduced deaths by 10 percent. Although previous research pointed to a major reduction in central-line related bloodstream infections at hospitals using the checklist, the new study is the first to show its use directly lowered mortality.

While clinical activities on hospital floors such as injections or starting IVs pose the constant threat of percutaneous injuries, nowhere is the danger more real than in the fast-paced operating room environment. Knowing this, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), released at this year's Congress a sharps safety toolkit that puts into the hands of perioperative professionals the educational materials they need to advance their knowledge of safe practices when using sharps.

One good housekeeper can prevent more diseases than a dozen doctors can cure. Some patients are so ill that a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) can take a patients life, even if there were a room full of doctors to provide treatment. Just as medical personnel care for patients, environmental services (ES) professionals work to keep hospitals healthy. This article is a nuts-and-bolts piece meant to improve the health of healthcare facilities. There are a few basic things we need to do to make ES departments effective -- proper hiring and training of staff, adequate design of ES work areas, accurate appraisal of task loads, and concise time management of the frontline staff.

A little information can go a surprisingly long way when it comes to understanding rodent-borne infectious disease, as shown by a new study led by John Orrock from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.