Posts from Month: April 2015

Despite all we’ve learned in recent years with the recent uptick in “superbugs” and broad discussion around preventative measures, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) continue to make national headlines. The Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were approximately 722,000 HAIs in U.S hospitals in 2011 at a cost of between 28.4 to 33.8 billion…

Introduction Preventing the transmission of infection that results from the use of reusable medical instruments contaminated by blood and body secretions is the most critical step of infection control in the medical office. Precisely following published guidelines to remove all organic materials from instruments, including vaginal specula or using single patient use disposable specula is…

Do ambulatory surgical centers, or ASCs, follow the same infection control protocols as other medical facilities? With over 5,000 of these centers in operation in the United States and participating in the Medicare program, this is a critical question. A 2010 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association looked specifically at ambulatory…

During a medical procedure, a patient must rely fully on healthcare professionals for their personal safety. The “Do No Harm” code is especially relevant in a specialty practice like anesthesiology. There is a significant trust involved in a procedure where the patient is conscious but it multiples a hundred fold when a patient is anesthetized…