Patient Safety, Infection Control and CDC resources
Patient Education Tool: 'Patient's Guide to Hand Hygiene' Flyer - 12/20/2011
Kimberly-Clark, as part of its healthcare-associated infections website, provides a free, downloadable flyer for patients on hand hygiene.
Download the Kimberly-Clark Patient's Guide to Hand Hygiene flyer (pdf) for use in your facility
Patient-Centered Medication Safety Poster - 9/28/2011
A new patient-centered poster addressing medication safety has been developed by the FDA and AHRQ. Click here to view the poster.
The CDC has released updated guidelines for prevention of catheter-related infections - 4/7/2011
Replacing a 2002 edition, the new guidelines are titled "Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections" and were published April 1, 2011. You can view the guidelines by clicking here.
CDC Resource Page for Health-Care Associated Infections in Dialysis - 3/14/2011
Infection Control
Always a paramount clinical concern, space does not permit links to all applicable infection control articles or websites! The following links are included to provide the most comprehensive and expert advice available.
- CDC Dialysis-Associated Infections-Prevention and Control
- CDC At-A-Glance Guidelines (MMWR page 28-29)
CDC reports dialysis patients face 100-fold increased risk for MRSA infections
Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bloodstream and other invasive infections in the United States. S. aureus has become increasingly resistant to first-line antimicrobial agents in health-care settings. Dialysis patients are especially vulnerable to infections, frequently those caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). To assess the incidence of invasive MRSA infection among dialysis patients in the United States during 2005, surveillance data were analyzed from the Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) system. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which estimated that, in 2005, the incidence of invasive MRSA infection among dialysis patients was 45.2 cases per 1,000 population. Persons receiving dialysis are at high risk for infection with invasive MRSA compared with the general population, in which rates of invasive MRSA have ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 infections per 1,000 population. The findings in this report underscore the need for continued surveillance and infection-control strategies aimed at reducing infection rates and preventing additional antimicrobial resistance among persons receiving dialysis. Read full report. (Link opens in a new browser.)
