Editor's Note A study analyzing data from 124,577 suspected sepsis cases across 236 US hospitals found that antibiotic de-escalation—switching to narrower-spectrum antibiotics or stopping broad-spectrum antibiotics—occurred in less than 30% of cases but was associated with improved patient outcomes, according to December 6 report from the Center for Infectious Disease…

Read More

Over 20 years ago, an article from Johns Hopkins published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that Staphylococcus aureus decolonization of the nares can decrease risk of surgical site infections (SSI). Since then, nasal decolonization—the application of a topical antimicrobial or antiseptic agent to the nares—has been adopted…

Read More

Editor's Note This expert guidance document, sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), updates the “Strategies to Prevent Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] Transmission and Infection in Acute Care Hospitals” that were published in 2014. Among the updates: Recommendations are now categorized as Essential Practices that should be…

Read More