CDC Releases New Infection Control Guidelines

October 23rd, 2006 · 3 Comments

Did you notice I was absent for a few days? I had a major computer malfunction - well really a major home malfunction: a lightening bolt hit way-too-close-for-comfort, and killed my computer (right through the surge supressor) and our phone lines. At least it didn’t kill us! Anyway, the point of my sob story is to let you know that some of the newer updates will be news from the end of last week, and this is why. So, carrying on:

CropperCapture[1] The Centers for Disease Control released new guidelines for infection control in healthcare settings last Thursday. The point of the new guidelines is to encourage healthcare facilities to be proactive in the war against bacteria.

The new guidelines illustrate that in order to prevent and control antibiotic-resistant infections, hospitals and healthcare facilities need to take several steps including:

* Ensuring prevention programs are funded and adequately staffed,
* Carefully tracking infection rates and related data to monitor the impact of prevention efforts,
* Ensuring that staff use standard infection control practices and follow guidelines regarding the correct use of antibiotics,
* Promoting best-practices with health education campaigns to increase adherence to established recommendations,
* Designing robust prevention programs customized to specific settings and local needs

If those recommendations don’t improve rates, healthcare facilities must reevaluate and implement more stringent measures, including screening of all patients at high risk for carrying drug-resistant bacteria to make sure the correct precautions are used for the right patients.

This is a good start - I hope these guidelines will be put into action via more specific methods in all of our healthcare facilities!

Education, HA MRSA, Infection Prevention, MRSA in the U.S.

3 responses so far ↓

Trish Stoll // Jan 26, 2007 at 2:44 pm

The CDC can release all the new infection control guildelines they want, but as long as medical staff are not required to adhere to the rules - THEY WON’T DO ANY GOOD! What may need to happen is a nationwide undercover search to include videos with hopital names of employees stepping outside to smoke with OR gowns on,foot covers, & masks hanging around their necks, going to cafeterias and returning to OR to eat, doctors leaving OR’s to run errands and returning to OR to complete cases, etc. And they wonder why the staph’s are out of control.
In Texas our restaurants undergo stricter monitoring by the “public police” than do our hospitals. Why is that??????
MRSA Notes // Feb 5, 2007 at 11:14 am

[…] As I mentioned pretty briefly last October, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) set new guidelines last year for infection control. One of the suggestions that they made (I say suggestions, because they are unfortunately not regulations that must be adhered to), is that patients use Chlorhexidine Glutonate (CHG) one day prior to surgery. You can do this at home, with products like Hibiclens, which you probably know I am a huge fan of. Apply the liquid all over your body, up to your neck, and leave it on for 10 minutes, then wash off. This article is a release from a company who makes products for in hospital use, but it has some interesting statistics and information about using CHG that might interest you. HA MRSA, Infection Prevention, MRSA, MRSA DrugsAdd to: February 5th, 2007 | Permalink | No Comments » […]
LH // Sep 27, 2007 at 12:38 am

Be nice if they could get hospital and clinic staff to just WASH HANDS after each patient. It’s been over 100 years since medical proffesionals have been told it’s the most common way to spread infections and they still don’t most of the time.

And to make sure that SOME of them use alcohol and sterilize before injections and if equipment hits the floor (!!). No, not kidding… Have seen it happen and have heard many others tell of it as well. Eeeewww.

MRSA Notes