Friday, October 30, 2009
It's a party! Bring your own alcohol (gel).
I learned about a new holiday today at IDSA. The WHO has declared May 5 to be hand-hygiene day. I'd suggest that we all celebrate by washing our hands, but apparently the point is that health care workers should be cleaning their hands all the time--specifically at 5 moments in the patient encounter. (See, 5 moments for the cinco de Mayo.)
This international effort is trying to make hand hygiene "easy, convenient and even sexy," according to Didier Pittet, MD. The project is very country-specific--in some developing countries, they're teaching how to make your own hand gel, while in others the focus is on humorous education to improve compliance. The importance of localizing humor was made clear by a French cartoon of a germ on a couch that Dr. Pittet presented. "Dr. Freud, in this hospital, it's become impossible to cause infections anymore," the germ said. It sure wouldn't win the ACP Internist/Hospitalist cartoon caption contest.
Labels: infectious diseases
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
1:11 PM
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Infectious tidbits
More hot stuff in infectious disease, this time from Bennett Lorber, MD. Dr. Lorber reviewed an array of recent research yesterday at IDSA. Here's the super-condensed version of his conclusions:
It's pretty clear that acid-suppressive medications are increasing the risk of pneumonia, and thereby causing excess hospital deaths, so they should not be prescribed so broadly. "We need to tell our medicine and hospital colleagues that acid-suppression should be a carefully considered decision," Dr. Lorber told the infectious disease docs.
Prescribing prophylactic antibiotics before catheter removal, on the other hand, is supported by new evidence. A recent trial found a NNT of 6 to prevent symptomatic infection. "We don't like this idea, but it's a pretty good study," Dr. Lorber said.
However, if you're trying to prevent infections after cardiac surgery, there's not enough evidence to justify putting patients on a statin before the procedure. A recent cohort study found that statins weren't associated with reduced post-op infections.
And finally, if you suspect a prosthetic joint infection, tell the lab to hold on to the specimen for at least 2 weeks, because a recent study showed that about a quarter of bacteria grown in cultures didn't show up until after a week had passed.
Labels: infectious diseases
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
1:11 PM
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
Get your darn flu shot!
The press conference I attended today at the Infectious Disease Society of America's annual meeting had a clear message and it was pretty much a more polite version of this post's title.
Researchers presented data showing that flu vaccination of pregnant women (seasonal, not pandemic, by the way) makes their babies less likely to be premature, small or admitted to the hospital for flu early in their lives. So, such vaccinations would solve the problem of not having a vaccination for newborns and achieve the cost-effectiveness of protecting two people with one shot. The scientists expressed hope that their findings would increase the currently "dismal" rates of expectant-mother vaccination. "If they're not doing it for themselves, maybe they'll do it for their babies," said Marietta Vasquez, MD.
I wouldn't count on it, based on the results presented about vaccination attitudes among hospital workers. The one-hospital survey found that plenty of health care workers, and even some physicians, believe that flu vaccines aren't safe and could give you the flu. In addition, many of them were not aware that one can transmit the flu without having symptoms. Depressing.
On the bright side, even though vaccine expert Paul Offit, MD, termed his part of the press conference a "mini-rant," he actually had some positive news to offer. "The pendulum is starting to swing the other way," he said. Concerns from parents of immunocompromised kids and the refusal by some docs to see unvaccinated children, among other factors, are putting the anti-vaccine troops on the defense, he thinks.
Labels: infectious diseases, influenza
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
6:53 PM
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Friday, October 16, 2009
Patient uses Twitter as he undergoes appendectomy
Today, live, patient Marc Needham is tweeting his hospital visit, which he just learned will result in an appendectomy. He's Scripps Health's Corporate Director of Web Technology. Also today, live, Henry Ford Hospital is again using Twitter to "broadcast" a surgery, in this case a kidney transplant. The first surgery was "tweeted" this morning, and the recipient surgery will follow this afternoon.
Labels: social media
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
10:46 AM
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Measuring retention
The next issue of ACP Hospitalist will feature a cover story about retaining hospitalists, which cites a national average of 13% turnover. That number comes from SHM surveying. But at a hospitalist roundtable here at the Medical Group Management Association, a woman who said she was involved in crunching the numbers (sorry, didn't catch her name) offered a little more explanation. She said that there are a lot of programs with almost no turnover, and another group with huge turnover, so the overall 13% figure can be a little deceptive. So if your program is nowhere near the average, on either end, you're probably not alone.
Labels: MGMA conference
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
9:57 AM
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Monday, October 12, 2009
Medical News of the Obvious
Kids are more likely than their peers to become addicted to the Internet if they're depressed, hostile or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or a social phobia. On the positive side, they also use it as therapy to overcome their face-to-face limitations or find kids like themselves.
Labels: medical news of the obvious
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
9:00 AM
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Monday, October 5, 2009
Medical News of the Obvious
Two of this week's highlights are best described by their headlines: "Study Finds Fish Won't Prevent Heart Failure" and "Eating in America Still Unhealthy: CDC."
It's a little surprising that our third study of the week didn't get such a catchy headline since it's easy to imagine one: Sex Makes People Happy. The intrepid scientists found that "women who are happy with their sex lives have higher well-being scores and more vitality than women who are sexually dissatisfied," according to HealthDay. But that's not all. It also turns out that getting some in itself is not sufficient to make women happy. Rather, some of them are having unsatisfying sex. "Frequency of sexual activity in women cannot be employed as a reliable indicator of sexual well-being," a researcher concluded.
Labels: medical news of the obvious
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
9:00 AM
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Contact ACP Hospitalist
Send comments to ACP Hospitalist staff at acphospitalist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- More jobs on the horizon for hospitalists?
- Medical news of the obvious
- Seeing red, or fading to black?
- Medical news of the obvious
- Ties that bind, and make you gag
- Medical News of the Obvious
- It's a party! Bring your own alcohol (gel).
- Infectious tidbits
- Get your darn flu shot!
- Patient uses Twitter as he undergoes appendectomy
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