Category: Infection Prevention and Control
Novel Coronavirus – What You Need to Know Now
Content courtesy of Dr. Angela Hewlett Coronaviruses are common respiratory pathogens, and generally cause mild symptoms of the ‘common cold’. However, other coronavirus strains have been known to cause outbreaks that lead to more severe disease like pneumonia, and even death. Examples of these include SARS and MERS, which are both coronaviruses with mortality rates […]
Jan 23, 2020
Blood culture contamination–it’s a big deal
Blood cultures are a key diagnostic test to detect bacteremia and appropriately treat patients with sepsis and are performed approximately 30 million times in the United States yearly. Unfortunately, contamination of blood cultures occurs in the 0.5% to 5% of samples (approximately 25% of positive blood cultures are due to contamination) which leads to inappropriate […]
Jan 21, 2020
Surveillance for vascular catheter associated complications in home health care is needed
Content written by Dr. Mark Rupp. Impressive gains in the prevention of central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) have been realized in recent years in US hospitals. However, with efforts to improve efficiency and decrease hospital length of stay, patients are increasingly being discharged to home health care to receive intravenous therapy. The rate of […]
Jan 6, 2020
Evaluating Next-Generation Melioidosis Diagnostics
In addition to being one of our ID physicians, Dr. James Lawler serves as the Director or International Programs and Innovation at the Global Center for Health Security, a center that will focus on training federal personnel to manage highly infectious diseases, and Director of Clinical and Biodefense Research at the National Strategic Research Institute. His interest in […]
Dec 23, 2019
Following up on pharmacist-led HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis
Earlier this year we featured a study by UNMC ID Drs. Sara Bares and Susan Swindells: “Midwest pharmacists’ familiarity, experience, and willingness to provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV.” We’re excited to share an update on their work building inter-professional relationships to increase PrEP education and use in Nebraska that was recently published in Open Forum […]
Dec 6, 2019
EMR Order Set Speeds Time to Antibiotic Treatment in Musculoskeletal Infections
Dr. Angela Hewlett spends her time at UNMC not only studying Ebola but also working to prevent and manage musculoskeletal infections. In addition to publishing this year’s update on “What’s New in Musculoskeletal Infection,” she collaborated with orthopedic surgeons, trauma surgeons, and emergency physicians to design and implement a new order set in the UNMC […]
Nov 5, 2019
Celebrating Global Handwashing Day!
Established by the Global Handwashing Partnership in 2008, Global Handwashing Day is celebrated each year on October 15 as a way to increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of handwashing with soap. Global Handwashing Day is an opportunity to get involved in creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times. […]
Oct 15, 2019
New UNMC ID publication alert! #ReadUNMCID Recently, several members of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UNMC/Nebraska Medicine published a study in American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) entitled: Microbial colonization of intravascular catheter connectors in hospitalized patients. Drs. Richard Hankins (former ID fellow, class of 2019), and Kelly Cawcutt (Associate Medical Director of Infection […]
Aug 19, 2019
Placing PICCs for Antibiotics – Potential Undue Risks May Outweight Benefits
PICC placement is common practice for intravenous (IV) antibiotic needs, however, we may be inadvertently placing certain patients at higher risks for complications. A recent study by Paje et al assessed the frequency of PICC placement among patients with CKD stage 3b or greater, a practice discordant with current guidelines. This prospective study included data […]
Jul 19, 2019
A Day in the Life of Central Venous Access Devices
This post comes courtesy of Dr. Mark Rupp, who recently published a study in the Journal of Infusion Nursing about outpatient maintenance practices for central venous access devices (CVADs)! Our patients are increasingly receiving intravenous therapy at home via indwelling CVADs. However, limited data exist regarding patients’ experiences with outpatient CVADs. Regina Nailon is the […]
Jun 18, 2019
Recent Comments