Long-term care administrators and directors should have an antibiotic stewardship program that takes the entire facility into account, an infection control expert said Thursday.
Long-term care providers might want to pay special attention to residents with certain recently identified risk factors for Clostridium difficile. These factors are chronic dialysis, recent hospitalization and use of corticosteroids such as prednisone.
Seniors in nursing homes are at greatest risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in the winter months, while children are at greatest risk during the summer, according to a recently released study.
A new oral antibiotic may effectively treat MRSA-related skin infections more quickly than the only oral drug currently approved, according to research published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (CA-MRSA) was discovered in nearly 91% of nursing homes tested in a recent study.
The National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors recently endorsed 12 patient safety measures with a focus on complications. The measures address pressure ulcers, falls, healthcare-associated infections and a range of quality concerns.
Contact precautions for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus led to healthcare workers practicing better hand hygiene, a study has found.
November 20, 2012
If there's one topic where I feel that healthcare publications tend to repeat themselves, it's around infection control.
Government health officials have released a tracking tool that can help nursing facilities monitor healthcare-acquired infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network's new tracking component lets users log onto a website.
Government health officials have released a tracking tool that can help nursing homes monitor healthcare-acquired infections.
July 30, 2012
Basic infection prevention and control isn't rocket science. It is essentially following some general guidelines. Some of them pretty simplistic. Not too hard right? You would think, but ...
Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections are on the decline in both healthcare facilities and in community settings, a new study found.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a test Wednesday that can help physicians diagnose an infection and select the proper antibiotic much more rapidly than with existing tests.
June 21, 2012
Long-term care organizations must practice diligent adherence to hand hygiene regimens and establish clear, written protocols for containing and preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), experts recommended during a webinar Wednesday.
Daily use of antimicrobial wipes combined with standard bathing helped one Canadian nursing facility cut its methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus transmission rate by 82% over 33 months, a team of epidemiologists found.
Healthcare providers with board-certified infection prevention specialists on staff have substantially fewer methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections than those that don't, new research suggests.
January 04, 2012
Vioguard announced that its self-sanitizing computer keyboard has received marketing clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. The keyboard was developed to address the need for continual disinfection efforts in healthcare settings, such as skilled nursing facilities. The keyboard uses ultraviolet light to automatically cleanse its surfaces. Ultraviolet light is a proven killer of flu, MRSA, and other harmful viruses and germs, the firm notes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a blood culture test that can determine if Staphylococcus aureus bacteria infections are methicillin resistant (MRSA) or methicillin susceptible (MSSA).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health recently announced a public health action plan targeted at antimicrobial resistance.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection rates tend to increase during the summer and autumn months, but adults in healthcare settings may be safe from the spike, new research suggests.
Private rooms in intensive care units help to reduce hospital infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and C. difficile, according to a study published in the January issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America just issued its first set of comprehensive guidelines for treating methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is often seen in nursing homes.
While nursing homes are considered to be high-risk facilities for the transmission of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) compared to hospitals and ICUs, infection rates vary broadly from facility to facility, according to a study.
As if MRSA and the flu do not pose enough of an irritation, nursing homes may be contending with a new pest: bedbugs.
Their wart-causing powers having long since been debunked, frogs are now getting a chance to prove their medical worthiness, according to new reports. Scientists are now using frog skin to produce new antibiotics to fight antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as MRSA.
There is no evidence that a new superbug resistant to most antibiotics will be any more dangerous than other known superbugs, according to new reports.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about a new superbug. Apparently, it may not be as "super powerful" as some people may think.
The number of cases of the dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are declining, but a new superbug could be spreading from India, according to two reports.
Bees from the Pacific Northwest could be excreting a sticky, but effective, treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, according to the latest buzz in biomedical research.
The secret to identifying people with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isn't right under our nose—it's in it, new research suggests.
