Health care-associated infections – an overview

Can managed health care help manage health care-associated infections?

Managed-care organizations have a unique opportunity, still largely unrealized, to collaborate with health-care providers and epidemiologists to prevent health care-associated infections. Several attributes make these organizations logical collaborators for infection control programs: they have responsibility for defined populations of enrollees and for their overall health, including preventiv...

Health care-associated infections: is there an end in sight?

OVERVIEW Health care-associated infections (HAIs) have emerged as a significant concern in policy as well as clinical circles. An HAI is an infection acquired during treatment for another condition. Some of the HAI-causing bacteria have become drug-resistant; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a familiar example. Tied to perhaps 100,000 deaths and $20 billion in health car...

Targeting zero health care-associated infections.

In January of 2006, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology published APIC Vision 2012, a strategic approach to the future of the practice and profession. Goal 1 of the plan stated that APIC will ‘‘promote prevention and zero tolerance for healthcareassociated infections (HAIs).’’ Since that time, APIC’s approach has evolved and focused instead on promoting a cul...

Health-care-associated infections in developing countries.

Health-care-associated infections in developing countries are a serious issue that is scarcely addressed in the scientifi c literature. Hence, the systematic review and meta-analysis in The Lancet by Benedetta Allegranzi and colleagues from WHO, which assessed the epidemiology of health-care-associated infections, is impressive. In this study, the investigators analysed pooled data from 220 sel...

Survey of health care-associated infections.