American journal of infection control
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Am J Infect Control · May 2012
Impact of multiple consecutive donnings on filtering facepiece respirator fit.
A concern with reuse of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-certified N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) is that multiple donnings could stress FFR components, impairing fit. This study investigated the impact of multiple donnings on the facepiece fit of 6 N95 FFR models using a group of 10 experienced test subjects per model. ⋯ Our results show that multiple donnings had a model-dependent impact on fit for the 6 N95 models evaluated. The data suggest that 5 consecutive donnings can be performed before FFs consistently drop below 100.
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Am J Infect Control · Apr 2012
Attitudes and beliefs, not just knowledge, influence the effectiveness of environmental cleaning by environmental service workers.
Hospital environmental service workers (ESWs) play an important role in interrupting the chain of infection because the environment is a reservoir for nosocomial pathogens. Improving ESWs' knowledge through education has been shown to improve ESW cleaning, but the behavioral determinants of their work have not been studied. Understanding and targeting ESWs' attitudes and beliefs may inform strategies to improve environmental cleaning. ⋯ ESWs' attitudes and beliefs about their job may impact their intent to clean and in turn the effectiveness of their efforts. Understanding and addressing these attitudes and beliefs can be used to inform strategies for sustained improvement of environmental cleaning.
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Am J Infect Control · Apr 2012
National prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in inpatients at United States health care facilities, 2010.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains one of the most prevalent multidrug-resistant organisms causing health care-associated infections. Limited data are available about how the prevalence of MRSA has changed over the past several years and what MRSA prevention practices have been implemented since the 2006 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc, MRSA survey. ⋯ Our survey documents that the MRSA prevalence in 2010 is higher than that reported in our 2006 survey. However, the majority of facilities currently are performing active surveillance testing, and, compared with 2006, the rate of MRSA infection has decreased while the rate of MRSA colonization has increased. In addition, compared with 2006, the proportion of MRSA strains recovered from MRSA-colonized/infected patients that are health care-associated strains has deceased, and community-associated strains have increased.
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Am J Infect Control · Apr 2012
Health care-associated infection and hospital readmission in a home care service for children.
The number of children in home health care services is increasing, and there is a need for infection control regulation in this environment. We describe the main causes of infection and hospitalization in children assisted by a pediatric home health care service in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Am J Infect Control · Apr 2012
Overview of adverse events related to invasive procedures in the intensive care unit.
This study was conducted to determine the frequency, predictors, and clinical impact of adverse events (AEs) related to invasive procedures in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ One-third of critically ill patients experienced AEs related to invasive procedures. Severe AEs were associated with 11% of all ICU deaths. VAP was the most frequent AE related to death. An improved assessment of the risk-benefit balance before each invasive procedure and increased efforts to decrease VAP prevalence are needed to reduce AE-related mortality.