Is there a correlation between infection control performance and other hospital quality measures?

Quality measures are increasingly reported by hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), yet there may be tradeoffs in performance between infection control (IC) and other quality measures. Hospitals that performed best on IC measures did not perform well on most CMS non–IC quality measures

Multisociety statement on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination as a condition of employment for healthcare personnel

This consensus statement by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA), the Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection Control (APIC), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) recommends that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel in facilities in the United States. Exemptions from this policy apply to those with medical contraindications to all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States and other exemptions as specified by federal or state law. The consensus statement also supports COVID-19 vaccination of nonemployees functioning at a healthcare facility (eg, students, contract workers, volunteers, etc)

Bandemia with normal white blood cell counts associated with infection.

OBJECTIVE: Measuring immature white blood cell forms (\u22bands\u22) has been considered clinically unnecessary. We performed this study to determine whether elevated band counts, with normal total white blood cells on admission, were associated with infection or in-hospital death. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study including all patients admitted to the Christiana Care Health System 2-hospital, 1100-bed community-based academic health system in 2009 with normal white blood cells (3800-10,800 per mm(3)) on admission who had manual differentials performed. We defined our band groups as normal (≤10% bands and other immature cells), moderate (11%-19%), or high (≥20%). Via chart review, we ascertained vital signs and culture results for all patients with elevated bands and 407 randomly sampled patients with normal bands. Cultures likely to be contaminants were excluded. We used multivariable logistic regression to determine whether bandemia was predictive of significant positive cultures or death. RESULTS: Of 2342 patients, 167 (7.1%) had high bands and 205 (8.6%) had moderate bands. The mean white blood cell count was 7.5 cells/mm(3), with no difference among groups. Bandemia was associated with increased odds of having any significant positive culture (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-3.1 for moderate bands; adjusted OR, 2.8, 95% CI, 1.7-4.3 for high bands) and having positive blood cultures (adjusted OR, 3.8, 95% CI, 2.0-7.2 for moderate bands; adjusted OR, 6.2, 95% CI, 3.2-11.8 for high bands). Patients with moderate or high bands also had increased odds of in-hospital death (adjusted OR, 3.2, 95% CI, 1.7-6.1; adjusted OR, 4.7, 95% CI, 2.4-9.0, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Even with normal total white blood cells, patients with moderate and high bandemia on admission had significantly increased odds of having positive cultures, including blood cultures, and of in-hospital mortality