Editor's Note Medicare’s Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program’s (HACRP) measure for surgical site infections (SSIs) after hysterectomy and colectomy unfairly places hospitals that are not statistical outliers at risk for financial penalties, this study from the University of Michigan finds. SSIs occurred in 1.1% of hysterectomies and 4.8% of colectomies…

Read More

Editor's Note In a study on the effectiveness of reprocessing flexible bronchoscopes presented June 14 by Ofstead and Associates at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control’s annual conference in Minneapolis, the majority of bronchoscopes were found to be contaminated and damaged even when cleaned and high-level disinfected according to…

Read More

What does it take to get endoscopes dry? That is the question that prompted a new study on endoscope drying effectiveness by Ofstead & Associates (St Paul, Minnesota). “We asked that question after a study we did 2 years ago found that increasing the automated endoscope reprocessor [AER] drying cycle…

Read More

Editor's Note Small, rural critical access hospitals have significant gaps in their infection prevention practices, finds this new study presented June 13 at the Annual Conference of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in Minneapolis. In 36 Nebraska hospitals analyzed, researchers found important gaps in all domains,…

Read More

Editor's Note After a routine survey, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) declared “Immediate Jeopardy” at UC San Diego’s Hillcrest campus because of cleaning issues with its surgical equipment, the June 8 10News reports. A CDPH report says that deficiencies found included: trays of surgical equipment with brown stains…

Read More

Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 11 issued a Health Advisory on investigations of hepatitis A outbreaks in multiple states in people reporting drug use and/or homelessness and their contacts. From January 2017 to April 2018, the CDC has received more than 2,500 reports…

Read More

Editor's Note This study from the University of Utah and University of Michigan found frequent and varied active failures in safety protocols to reduce infectious agent transmission by hospital personnel, including violations, mistakes, and slips. Researchers identified 283 failures in safety protocols, including: 102 violations (deviations from safe operating practices…

Read More

Editor's Note National efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reduce hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) helped prevent some 8,000 deaths and save $2.9 billion in costs between 2014 and 2016, according to a new report released June 5 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Data…

Read More

Editor's Note Rates of infection after colonoscopies and osophagogastroduodenoscopies (OGDs) performed in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are higher than previously thought and vary widely by facility, this study from Johns Hopkins finds. Rates of postendoscopic infection per 1,000 procedures within 7 days were: 1.1 for screening colonoscopy 1.6 for nonscreening…

Read More

Editor's Note A Hawaii statewide collaborative for surgical patient safety successfully reduced colorectal surgical site infections (SSIs) and improved patient safety culture, finds this study. Between January 2013 and June 2015, Hawaii’s 15 hospitals implemented the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) in addition…

Read More