American journal of infection control
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Am J Infect Control · Nov 2012
"Swimming in resistance": Co-colonization with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Acinetobacter baumannii or Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Co-colonization of patients with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and Acinetobacter baumannii (AB) or Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is reported to be associated with increased antibiotic resistance and mortality. ⋯ Co-colonization is found in patients with the greatest disease burden in the hospital and occurs due to the dissemination of multiple CRE strains. This finding calls into question the practice of cohorting patients with CRE in close proximity to patients with AB or PA.
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Am J Infect Control · Nov 2012
Decreasing ventilator-associated pneumonia in the intensive care unit: a sustainable comprehensive quality improvement program.
An intensive care unit implemented an oral care bundle to decrease ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). A retrospective analysis comparing like time periods revealed the VAP rate per 1,000 ventilator-days dropped significantly from 10.5 to 0 (P = .016). The oral care bundle remains in place as of end of May 2011 and has proven to be a sustainable method for VAP prevention.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2012
Indwelling urinary catheter management and catheter-associated urinary tract infection prevention practices in Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders hospitals.
Indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) are commonly used in hospitalized patients, especially elders. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) account for 34% of all health care associated infections in the United States, associated with excess morbidity and health care costs. Adherence to CAUTI prevention practices has not been well described. ⋯ Although many CAUTI prevention practices at NICHE hospitals are in alignment with evidence-based guidelines, there is room for improvement. Further research is needed to identify the effect of enhanced compliance with CAUTI prevention practices on the prevalence of CAUTI in NICHE hospitals.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2012
Wide variation in adoption of screening and infection control interventions for multidrug-resistant organisms: a national study.
We performed a survey of National Healthcare Safety Network hospitals in 2008 to describe adoption of screening and infection control policies aimed at multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) in intensive care units (ICUs) and identify predictors of their presence, monitoring, and implementation. ⋯ This study found wide variation in adoption of MDRO screening and infection control interventions, which may reflect differences in published recommendations or their interpretation. Further research is needed to provide additional insight on effective strategies and how best to promote compliance.
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Am J Infect Control · Oct 2012
The short-term and long-term effectiveness of a multidisciplinary hand hygiene improvement program.
Although hand hygiene (HH) compliance has been an important issue for years, the compliance rate is still a problem in health care today. ⋯ Our multifaceted HH improvement program resulted in a sustained improvement of HH knowledge and compliance in nurses as well as physicians.