Preliminary data suggests hospitals are trending back in the right direction to reverse the declines in quality and safety that happened during the pandemic, according to Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

The ambulatory surgery center ecosystem is thriving. New ASCs, whether owned privately or through cooperative investments with hospitals, are springing up across the nation — and their surgical volumes are growing. This trend, driven largely by changes in reimbursement models that prize cost efficiency and high-quality outcomes, is leading to greater ASC specialization, with some ASCs focusing on orthopedics, ophthalmology and urology procedures.

Texas health officials are warning clinicians about a string of suspected fungal meningitis cases among state residents who underwent surgery in Mexico.

Now is not the time to do away with masks in healthcare settings, two infectious disease physicians wrote in a commentary published May 16 in Annals of Internal Medicine, an indication that the debate over whether hospitals should continue to mandate masking is not wavering any time soon. 

The CDC published guidance on improving building ventilation to protect people from respiratory infections.

Here are six findings from infection control studies Becker's has covered since April: 

A new study found a high percentage of COVID-19 deaths may have been caused by a secondary pneumonia infection.

Intermountain Health reduced antibiotic prescribing in urgent care clinics by 15 percent after rolling out new stewardship initiatives, according to a study published May 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Allowing bedside nurses to independently order Clostridioides difficile testing could help hospitals lower the risk of patient infections and associated deaths, according to a study published May 11 in the American Journal of Infection Control.

New guidance on surgical site infections calls for physicians to cease antibiotic prophylaxis immediately after surgeries, according to research published May 4 in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. It is the first major revision to the guidelines since 2014.

Health officials have yet to identify the source of a Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak tied to 31 illnesses and seven patient deaths at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center, NPR affiliate KUOW reported May 5.

Data released as part of The Leapfrog Group's annual hospital rankings — which analyzed data from late 2021 and into 2022 — revealed a significant rise in healthcare-associated infections — a trend that was in decline prior to the pandemic.

Needless to say, the onset of COVID-19 came without a clear road map for the medical profession to follow while navigating it. It's in light of this that the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology launched a series of playbooks designed to help guide healthcare facilities through infectious disease threats.

The pivot from pandemic-era mandatory masking in healthcare settings to optional masking — even for healthcare staff in most cases — has become a difficult situation for vulnerable, high-risk and immunocompromised patients to navigate. 

The Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in Dallas prevented healthcare-associated infection rates from rising during the pandemic — and reduced burnout among infection prevention and control team members — through a 14-month initiative, according to a study published April 26 in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Over the last six months, 31 patients at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center have been infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae and four have since died, NPR affiliate KUOW reported April 25.

UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Ill., hasn't seen a central-line-associated blood infection since December 2021 — an accomplishment that took coordinated planning and multidisciplinary collaboration. 

Staff and visitors will be required to mask up at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Medical Center amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than a dozen hospital workers and patients, The San Francisco Chronicle reported April 20. 

Hygiene practices have come a long way since the CDC first published national hygiene guidelines in the 1980s. With so much to keep track of, a nurse leader summarized some of the latest practice recommendations and strategies to increase hand hygiene compliance in an April 18 blog post for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. 

Wearing masks at grocery stores, on airplanes, subways and buses was the norm during the height of the pandemic. Now, most mask mandates only remain at hospitals and in healthcare settings, but experts say it is time to walk back those policies.