The new rules allow surveyors to penalize a hospital for a deficiency if an individual fails to perform hand hygiene in the process of direct patient care.

This year's theme, We Are All Patients, encourages health care providers to stand with patients and stresses the importance of patient engagement in safe care.

The agency has found marked progress over a decade in eliminating five health care–associated infections (HAIs), and offers an update on the Department of Health and Human Services' five-year goals to reduce HAIs.

These awards will support antibiotic resistance research with a focus on the human microbiome, environmental settings, and health care settings.

From Oct. 15 to Oct. 21, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology will raise awareness about antibiotic resistance through a Twitter chat and new infographic.

This video shares strategies to improve injection safety and reduce infection risks in narcotic diversion; participants must sign up for a free Medscape account to view the video.

The Get Ahead of Sepsis campaign includes a partner toolkit with educational and social media materials; CDC also will host a related webinar and Twitter chat.

The video is the third in a series by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about challenges to preventing health care-associated infections.

The list includes reusable medical devices with the greatest risk of transmitting an infection or performing poorly if not properly reprocessed.

The course runs March 20–24 in Atlanta and includes expert content on different infection or event types, as well as antibiotic stewardship.

The targets aim to significantly reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections, MRSA, Clostridium difficile cases, and other infections by 2020.

Each year, APIC sponsors International Infection Prevention Week to highlight the importance of infection prevention in improving patient safety.

Stӧckert 3T heater-cooler devices used during cardiopulmonary bypass procedures might have been contaminated with M. Chimaera in the manufacturing process.

The recommendations, developed by the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, aim to optimize treatment and minimize adverse consequences.

In a Vital Signs report ahead of Sepsis Awareness Month, in September, CDC highlights resources and events aimed at reducing sepsis.

The voluntary recall now applies to all of PharmaTech’s liquid products, including those labeled by Bayshore, Centurion, Major, Metron, Rugby, and Virtus.

Funding will support work related to CDC Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

Florida-based PharmaTech issued the voluntary recall of liquid docusate sodium that could be contaminated with B. cepacia, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria linked to an outbreak in five states.

The funding was distributed as part of the Prevention Epicenters Program, which aims to develop and test new approaches to patient safety and infection prevention.

CDC has received multiple reports of Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) infection clusters in pediatric intensive care units.

CDC's June Vital Signs finds that the number of U.S. residents with Legionnaires' disease and Pontiac fever increased 286 percent from 2000 to 2014.

New instructions are validated by the FDA to ensure they meet proper guidelines to avoid transmission of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

No-fee course, Feb. 29 to March 4 in Atlanta, to focus on January 2016 updates to the NHSN patient safety component manual.

Educational surveys to help CMS determine best ways to assess infection control regulations for hospitals, nursing homes, and care transitions. Surveys to begin in FY 2016 for nursing homes and in FY 2017 for hospitals.

CDC report outlines the need for monitoring of CRE and related antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

FDA cites violations of federal law that could result in an increased risk of infection transmission by company's equipment.

New report from ECRI Institute also lists failure to respond to clinical alarms, unsafe injection practices, and insufficient training among top hazards.

Initiative seeks to strengthen healthcare-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention, raise awareness of successful strategies, and recognize investment in VTE prevention.

International Infection Prevention Week, Oct. 18-24, raises awareness of patient and family engagement, hand hygiene in infection prevention and patient safety

Agencies say anecdotal reports of intentional nonreporting of infection data have prompted them to emphasize the importance of accurate reporting through strict adherence to NHSN definitions.

The prevention epicenters will identify innovative ways to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in health care facilities. University of Utah and the University of Illinois - Chicago join Cook County Health & Hospital System as essential hospital participants.

CDC and FDA remove language from guidelines that requires health care facilities to verify that vendors involved in maintaining, cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing reusable medical devices are certified by the manufacturer.

Extension to Aug. 28 applies only to quality reporting on health care-associated infections (HAIs), not clinical data submissions through QualityNet.

Vital Signs report recommends collaboration between public health departments and health care facilities to stop antibiotic resistance, promote infection control.

Information suggests connection between infections and hospital consumption of Blue Bell ice cream products

The CDC has added a tool to the NHSN that will rank hospital facilities and units by HAI rate so staff can see areas most in need of help.

To gain control of an HAC that had plagued Jackson Health System for nearly two decades, the hospital began sending weekly emails to hospital leaders regarding the state of the HAC and attempted interventions. As aresult, the number of patients acquiring the HAC drastically dropped.

MetroHealth's team-based Wash-In, Wash-Out program boosts hand hygiene compliance among staff and reduces hospital-acquired infections.

Hospitals should encourage physicians to use a certain dress code to reduce the risk of spreading hospital-acquired infections, according to new expert guidance.