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Showing results for tags 'Infection control'.
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Content ArticleInfection prevention and control (IPC) programmes and practices play a vital role to ensure outbreak preparedness and control, including patient safety and quality of care, which remain essential components of universal health coverage across health systems worldwide. However, detailed IPC evaluations using standardised validated tools, such as the WHO IPC self-assessment framework (IPCAF), are limited. Tomczyk et al. have conducted the first WHO global survey to assess implementation of these programmes in healthcare facilities. IPC professionals were invited through global outreach and national coordinated efforts to complete the online WHO IPC assessment framework (IPCAF). The study found that despite an overall high IPCAF score globally, important gaps in IPC facility implementation and core components across income levels hinder IPC progress. Increased support for more effective and sustainable IPC programmes is crucial to reduce risks posed by outbreaks to global health security and to ensure patient and health worker safety.
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Content Article
Questions & answers: World Hand Hygiene Day 2022
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in WHO
The 5 May is World Hand Hygiene Day. This year's theme is focused on recognising that we can add to a facility's climate or culture of safety and quality through cleaning our hands but also that a strong quality and safety culture will encourage people to clean hands at the right times and with the right products. See the World Health Organization's questions and answers about World Hand Hygiene Day. -
Content ArticleAs a role model or champion, feeling empowered to talk about hand hygiene to a range of colleagues is important. The World Health Organization has collated a number of hand hygiene improvement tools. These tools prime people to be able to unite to ensure clean hands by acting on the contents of these resources that support hand hygiene improvement in the context of organisational safety climate or culture change. They apply to a wide range of people working in health care.
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Content ArticleLong Covid Support and Long Covid Kids surveyed people with Long Covid about their experience of being reinfected with Covid. Responses were received from 484 adults and 112 children and young people. The study found that reinfection worsens the symptoms of Long Covid in the majority those who are still symptomatic. Reinfection causes a recurrence of Long Covid in 60% of those who were in recovery or remission. 89% of respondents first got Long Covid after their first infection, 10% after their second infection and 1% after their third. Most adult respondents had been vaccinated before their second infection.
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Content ArticleThe European Network for Safer Healthcare (ENSH) joined forces with the European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN) to work on a policy campaign to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in Europe as a path to improving patient safety and preventing anti-microbial resistance (AMR) through: Improvement of adherence to existing European guidelines to prevent CAUTI. Development of European indicators to support the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and/or national surveillance systems.
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Content ArticleAs of May 31, 2022, there were 6·9 million reported deaths and 17.2 million estimated deaths from COVID-19, as reported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission was established in July 2020, with four main themes: developing recommendations on how to best suppress the epidemic; addressing the humanitarian crises arising from the pandemic; addressing the financial and economic crises resulting from the pandemic; and rebuilding an inclusive, fair, and sustainable world. It has now published it's key findings and recommendations.
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Content ArticleIn this insightful and informative review by Dr Shaffi from Cleveland Clinic learn how you can target Zero catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) through close attention to practice - from patient selection through management of the catheter lifecycle and delivery of data driven practice learn the changes that matter.
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Content ArticleEuropean Union Directive 2010/32/EU legally enforces a set of strategies aimed at preventing sharps injuries and determining the risk of bloodborne infections and psychological distress in healthcare workers. This article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health looks at the results of a national survey conducted in Italy in 2017 and repeated in 2021 to evaluate the progress of the Directive's implementation. The authors assessed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on implementation.
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Content ArticleIn March 2018, the Secretary-General of the United Nations launched a global call to action for WASH in all healthcare facilities, noting that healthcare facilities are essential tools in reducing disease, and that without basic WASH services, healthcare facilities can instead contribute to more infections, prolonged hospital stays and preventable deaths, including of mothers and babies. This call was answered in a May 2019 World Health Assembly resolution calling on countries to conduct comprehensive assessments of WASH and IPC in health care facilities, and to take steps to improve WASH and IPC conditions where necessary. In May 2022, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution calling for WHO to draft a global strategy on infection prevention and control. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), through the WHO/ UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) release progress updates on WASH in households, WASH in schools and WASH in health care facilities every two years. This 2022 update presents national, regional and global estimates for WASH in healthcare facilities up to the year 2021, with a special focus on the linkages between WASH and infection prevention and control (IPC). Achieving universal access to WASH in health care facilities requires political will and strong leadership at both national and facility levels, but is highly cost-effective, and would yield substantial health benefits.
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Content ArticleGloves are an important part of infection prevention and control, but they are often misused and overused in clinical practice, putting patients at increased risk of infection. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this issue has been exacerbated due to health professionals’ fear and anxiety. This article, published by Nursing Times, explores these issues, as well as actions to encourage the appropriate use of non-sterile gloves to protect both patients and health professionals.
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Covid-19 has posed a huge challenge to the delivery of safe care, both when infection rates were at their highest levels and in terms of its long-term impact on health and social care systems.[1] The pandemic has magnified existing patient safety issues, created new ones, and exposed safety gaps which require systemic responses. This month the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new report, Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for patient safety: A rapid review.[2] The review aims to create a greater understanding of the impact of the pandemic on patient safety, particularly in relation to diagnostic services, treatment and care management. In this blog, Patient Safety Learning, one of the international organisations who contributed to this review, provides an overview and reflections on some the key themes and issues raised in this review. -
Content ArticleGovernments in England, Scotland and Wales recently withdrew covid sick leave for NHS staff. These changes to sick pay provision for staff on Covid-related sick pay is hard to understand at a time when Covid-19 infections are going up exponentially and many NHS organisations are reporting increasing numbers of staff off sick. Evidence is emerging that your chances of on-going issues (Long Covid) following a covid infection increase with each re-infection. Given this you might expect that NHS organisations were ensuring their infection control guidelines guaranteed staff were fully protected against Covid-19. However, in many Trusts this does not appear to be the case. Throughout the pandemic many NHS organisations seem to have focused on following Government guidelines about PPE requirements and ignored their obligations under Health and Safety Legislation. This has resulted in on-going shortcomings in protecting staff at work. This is discussed by Professor Raymond Agius and colleagues in a BMJ blog.
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Content ArticleThe pandemic has emphasised the high risk of avoidable harm to patients, health workers, and the general public, and has identified a range of safety gaps across all core components of health systems at all levels. The World Health Organization (WHO)'s rapid review ‘Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for patient safety’ explores impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic did have on patient safety in terms of risks and avoidable harm, specifically in terms of diagnostic, treatment and care management related issues as well as highlights the main patterns of these implications within the broader health system context.
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Content ArticleClinicians play an essential role in implementing infection prevention policy, but little is known about how infection control policy is implemented at an organisational level or what factors influence this process. This study explores the policy implementation process used in the introduction of a national large-scale, government-directed infection prevention policy in Australia.
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Content ArticleThis opinion piece in The BMJ looks at the impact of the government's decision to make the wearing of masks in healthcare settings the decision of local providers, dependent on local risk assessment and prevalence. It highlights reports of patients wearing high-filtration FFP2 or FFP3 respirator—many of who are immunocompromised—being asked to remove and replace them with less effective single-use masks in order to gain entry to NHS facilities for treatment. The authors highlight that Covid-19 is an airborne pathogen and that the likelihood of contracting the virus increases with length of time spent in contaminated air. They argue that downgrading mask use in healthcare settings puts everyone at risk, but that it is a particular issue for patients who are clinically extremely vulnerable due to underlying health conditions or because they are undergoing treatment for cancer. They call on the government to upgrade masks to FFP2 or FFP3 respirators in order to protect staff and patients and reverse the worrying trend of clinically extremely vulnerable patients avoiding attending healthcare services.
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Content ArticleDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, intensive Care Units (ICUs) all came under severe pressure, resulting in higher than usual mortality and complications rates, and longer stays. However, there was variation in outcomes among ICUs and this editorial in the journal Annals of Intensive Care discusses the concept of a resilient ICU. It looks at which metrics can be used to address the capacity to respond, sustain results and incorporate new practices that lead to improvement.
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Content ArticleThis report examines the approaches and key decisions taken by UK governments during the pandemic and the public health measures they introduced. It assesses whether these choices were timely, appropriate, and proportionate to deal with the threat and impact of COVID-19.
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Content ArticleIn this opinion piece for The Guardian, Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh discusses the global threat of monkeypox—a virus that causes fever, swollen lymph nodes and distinctive rashes on the face, palms, the soles of the feet and genitalia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the recent outbreak of monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. Professor Sridhar highlights the need to take a collaborative approach across borders to ensure the outbreak is brought under control. She outlines that the most effective strategy in preventing the virus spreading further is to protect the group most at risk from the virus—men who have sex with men (MSM)—through vaccination.
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Content ArticleThe Government’s aim throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been to protect the lives and livelihoods of citizens across the UK. This document sets out how the Government has and will continue to protect and support citizens by: enabling society and the economy to open up more quickly than many comparable countries; using vaccines; and supporting the NHS and social care sector. It also sets out how England will move into a new phase of managing COVID-19. The Devolved Administrations will each set out how they will manage this transition in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The global pandemic is not yet over and the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is clear there is considerable uncertainty about the path that the pandemic will now take in the UK. This document therefore also sets out how the Government will ensure resilience, maintaining contingency capabilities to deal with a range of possible scenarios.
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Content ArticleKaren Lesley Starling died on 7 February 2020 aged 54 and Anne Edith Martinez died on 17 December 2020 aged 65. Both deceased underwent successful lung transplant procedures at the new Royal Papworth Hospital. However, both women became infected with a hospital acquired infection, namely Mycobacteria abscessus (M. abscessus), and died. M. abscessus is an environmental non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). It can sometimes be found in soil, dust and water, including municipal water supplies. It is usually harmless for healthy people but may cause opportunistic infection in vulnerable individuals. Lung transplant patients and lung defence patients such as Mrs Starling and Mrs Martinez were at particular risk of infection from mycobacteria, including M. abscessus.
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Content ArticleThis document by the World Health Organization (WHO) outlines an easy to follow country approach to developing or adapting an infection prevention and control guideline. It gives guidance on five steps countries can take: Prepare for action Baseline assessment Develop/adapt and execute Evaluate impact Sustain over the long term
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Content ArticleThe Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) is an independent scientific advisory body that looks at industrial injuries benefit and how it is administered. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the IIAC has been reviewing and assessing the increasing scientific evidence on the occupational risks of Covid-19. This report builds on an IIAC interim Position Paper published in February 2021 and considers more recent data on the occupational impacts of Covid-19, particularly around the longer term health problems and disability caused by the virus. IIAC found the most convincing and consistent evidence was for health and social care workers in certain occupational settings, who present with five serious pathological complications following Covid-19 that have been shown to cause persistent impairment and loss of function in some workers.
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Content ArticleIn this episode of 'Better Never Stops', Virginia Mason Institute Senior Partner Melissa Lin interviews Dana Nelson-Peterson, Vice President of Nursing Operations at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, who shares what happens when you trust a management system and improvement process to solve your toughest challenges. Dana shares her story of leading a critical part of Virginia Mason’s Covid response.
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Content Article
Covid Airborne Protection Alliance Latest News
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Covid Airborne Protection Alliance – formerly the AGP Alliance – (Chaired by BAPEN's Dr Barry Jones) is calling on Governments and health services in all four nations of the UK to review and update its guidance regarding personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health and social care staff as a matter of urgency. Stay up to date with their latest news. -
Content ArticleAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major challenge to the UK’s health security, and is already responsible for a significant burden of death, disability and prolonged illness globally. The growing resistance of bacteria, viruses and fungi to the drugs commonly used to treat them threatens modern medicine, and our ability to carry out standard medical procedures. This report draws on the expert input of a roundtable held by public service think tank Reform in October 2022, to assess progress made against proposals published by Reform in 2020.
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