Making Infection Prevention “Simple”
Susan Huang, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the REDUCE MRSA study and Associate Professor at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine and Medical Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at UC Irvine Health For years, we have searc…
What People Are Saying About the REDUCE MRSA Trial
The REDUCE MRSA trial was published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine and took place in two stages from 2009-2011. A multidisciplinary team from the University of California, Irvine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hospital Corporatio…
Preserving Antibiotic Effectiveness: Everybody’s Responsibility
Guest Author – Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD Director, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy To many, antibiotic resistance may seem like an evergreen issue that reappears in the news cycle periodically. However, recent reports of the emergence and spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, described in CDC’s March 2013 Vital Signs Report remind us that we stand […]
The Role of the Healthcare Environment: Challenges and Opportunities in Reducing Healthcare-Associated Infections
Guest Author, Dr. Kerri Thom Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Epidemiology and Public Health University of Maryland School of Medicine As leaders in infection control and prevention, healthcare epidemiologists and infection preventionists mu…
Three Ways the Affordable Care Act Makes a Difference as it Turns 3
Guest Author, Tom Frieden, MD, MPH Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Last Saturday marked the third birthday of the Affordable Care Act. We at CDC are in the prevention business. So, in addition to the Act’s provisions to increase …
New York Hospital Virtually Eliminates CRE Transmission in ICU Settings
Guest Author – Dr. Currie Montefiore Medical Center, University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Today I would like to discuss a highly successful patient safety intervention designed to reduce the prev…
Understanding and combating CRE bacteria in Chicago
Guest Authors – Michael Y. Lin, MD MPH Mary K. Hayden, MD For the Chicago Prevention Epicenters Program Increasingly, certain kinds of bacteria are causing serious infections that are difficult or impossible to cure because the bacteria are resistant…
The Beginning of the End of Antibiotics?
Author – Arjun Srinivasan, MD CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion Today in CDC’s March Vital Signs, we report on what could be the beginning of the end of antibiotics. Our arsenal of existing antibiotics is being overpowered by lethal …
Overcoming Education Gaps and Denial: CDC and SIPC Release New Tools to Help Clinicians Ensure Every Injection is Safe
Author: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Injection safety is part of the minimum expectation for safe care anywhere healthcare is delivered; yet, CDC has had to investigate outbreak after outbreak of life-threatening infections caused by in…
When Antibiotics Lead to Deadly Diarrhea…
Author – Matthew Wayne MD, CMD, Chief Medical Officer for CommuniCare Family of Companies, President of the American Medical Directors Association (AMDA) So, you’ve recently taken antibiotics and you’ve now developed a case of disturbing diarrhea…
Addressing Antibiotic Use in Nursing Homes – It Starts with a Conversation
Author – Nimalie Stone MD, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As you have read in the posts from our academic and clinical partners, much work needs to be done to impact the systems and behaviors dri…
Cost of Antibiotic Misuse Too Great to Ignore
Author – Sara Cosgrove, MD, MS, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Medical and scientific advances change the way we look at the world. Before penicillin was introduced in 1942, any infection could be a death sentence. Since then, we have been…
“Drivers” of appropriate antibiotic use in the inpatient setting: Exploring Practical Approaches
Authors: Diane Jacobsen MPH, CPHQ, Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement Don Goldmann MD, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement Did you ever wonder why a practical change idea can be more than a simple challenge? For examp…
Behavior Change in Healthcare to Break Old Habits and Prevent HAIs
Author: Jan Patterson, MD, MS, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, CPE, FACHE President of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Change is never easy and old habits are tough to break. Since preventable healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) affect one i…
Outbreak Investigation: Meningitis
One Case Sparks National Action Imagine… A patient goes to the doctor for a routine steroid injection. A couple weeks later, the patient feels sick – headache, fever and suddenly uncomfortable in bright light. Within days, the patient is admi…