American journal of infection control
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2010
Practice GuidelinePreventing ventilator-associated pneumonia: An executive summary of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc, Elimination Guide.
This article is an executive summary of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc, Elimination Guide for ventilator-associated pneumonia. Infection preventionists are encouraged to obtain the original, full-length Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc, Elimination Guide for more thorough coverage of ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2010
A stepwise approach to control an outbreak and ongoing transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Preventing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission in health care facilities where MRSA is endemic is challenging yet critical. ⋯ Despite an increasing incidence of MRSA in community settings, preventing MRSA transmission within a NICU is achievable through implementation of optimal intervention strategies.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2010
Predictors of mortality of Acinetobacter baumannii infections: A 2-year prospective study in a Greek surgical intensive care unit.
Nosocomial infections are a frequent and continuously increasing problem worldwide, have a rapidly increasing multidrug resistance to antibiotics, and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. ⋯ A baumannii infections are frequent and associated with high drug multiresistance, morbidity, and mortality. Age, renal failure, thrombocytopenia, and subsequent E faecium bacteremia were predictors of A baumannii infection-associated mortality.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2010
The harder you look, the more you find: Catheter-associated bloodstream infection surveillance variability.
Catheter-related bloodstream infections are an important quality performance measure and remain a significant source of added morbidity, mortality, and medical costs. ⋯ There is substantial variation in reported CA-BSI surveillance practices among PICUs, and more aggressive surveillance correlates to higher CA-BSI rates, which has important implications in pay-for-performance and benchmarking applications. There is a compelling opportunity to improve standardized CA-BSI surveillance to enhance the validity of this metric for interinstitutional comparisons. Health care professionals' attitudes and beliefs about CA-BSI being driven by patient risk factors would benefit from recalibration that emphasized more important drivers-such as the quality of central line insertion and maintenance.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2010
Role of nasal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus screening in the management of skin and soft tissue infections.
We set out to determine whether nasal swab isolates can identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization and guide therapy in skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI). Among hospitalized patients admitted to a general medicine service with SSTI, specificity and positive predictive value for MRSA in nasal swab isolates were 100%; sensitivity was 55%. Thus, positive nasal swab cultures may help identify MRSA colonization and guide antimicrobial therapy for SSTI when wound cultures cannot be obtained.