The following are the latest stories on infection control from the last two weeks on Becker's Hospital Review.
1. Delays prior to surgery and the type of antibiotic prophylaxis administered prior to surgery may affect surgical site infection rates, according to research presented at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons' 2014 conference and covered by Healio.
Sign up for our FREE E-Weekly for more coverage like this sent to your inbox!
2. A study examining the efficacy of three different sepsis treatments found no significant differences in survival rate based on the treatment received, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
3. Thirty-eight percent of patients with sepsis receive inappropriate antimicrobial therapy, according to research published in PLOSOne.
4. Researchers studying the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus found infants often develop infections before colonization is recognized or after undergoing decolonization efforts, according to a study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
5. Methods to screen carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae can range from an annual cost of approximately $23,000 to $225,000 when factoring in the program cost and lab technician hours, according to a study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
6. Ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by multidrug-resistant organisms was associated with a mortality rate six times higher than cases of VAP caused by non-MDR organisms, according to research published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
7. Loma Linda (Calif.) University, San Diego-based Sepsis Alliance and sepsis survivor Kim Pickinpaugh have received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to establish the "Sepsis Survivors Engagement Project," an initiative focused on building a community around and encouraging research regarding sepsis, according to a news release.
8. In a new report from the New England Journal of Medicine, two Los Angeles-based UCLA physicians have presented best-practice guidelines for caring for skin abscesses resulting from community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
9. Patients who received delayed antibiotic prescriptions or no prescription at all did not experience worse symptom severity than patients who received immediate antibiotic prescriptions, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
10. South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., alerted 4,247 patients of a risk of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV contamination due to potentially improper use of insulin pens in the hospital, according to a report from Long Island Newsday.
11. Patients with penicillin allergies may experience longer lengths of stay and are at a higher risk for developing healthcare-associated infections, according to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
12. Central-line associated bloodstream infections are not all created equal: CLABSIs in non-ICU settings carry significantly higher mortality than those in the intensive care unit, according to research published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
13. Children between the ages of one and three had the highest incidence of Clostridium difficile infections of all patients under the age of 18 in 2010 and 2011, according to a study in Pediatrics.
14. Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Mass., paid a $6,000 penalty after the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection found the hospital violated hazardous waste regulations.
More Articles on Infection Control & Clinical Quality:
Producing Peace of Mind: How Hospitals Can Identify and Reduce Patient Suffering
Health 'Conspiracy Theories' Prevalent, Can Affect Patients' Use of Treatments
Patient-Centered Medical Home Checklists, Tools