A new study suggests hospitals should test all patients for COVID-19 upon admission as an infection control measure to prevent hospital-onset cases when community infection rates are high. 

A group of five medical societies released new recommendations aimed at preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in acute care hospitals Aug. 25.

CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, detailed the agency's launch of a new hospital program focused on enhancing sepsis care and improving patient outcomes, during an Aug. 24 CDC press call. 

This fall will mark the first virus season since COVID-19 emerged in which hospitals and health systems must independently determine when and how to implement universal masking, if at all. 

Kaiser Permanente is reintroducing a mask mandate at its facilities in Santa Rosa, Calif., amid an uptick in patients testing positive for COVID-19, according to a statement obtained by The Press Democrat. 

Clark Memorial Health in Jeffersonville, Ind., is notifying patients of a potential exposure to tuberculosis after one of its employees recently tested positive for the disease, the News and Tribune reported Aug. 22.

Nurses are calling on the CDC to strengthen its infection control guidance for hospitals, which has not seen revisions for 16 years, because of concerns the agency might state surgical masks are equal to N95s in infection control measures.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center have identified thousands of genes that are altered in the lungs and kidneys by sepsis, paving the way for treatment and prevention approaches. 

The Maryland Department of Health confirmed its first locally acquired malaria case in more than 40 years. 

Auburn (N.Y.) Community Hospital has restored its universal mask mandate only a month after officially ending the policy, ABC affiliate WSYR reported Aug. 18.

Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., reinstated a mask mandate Aug. 17 amid an uptick in staff out sick with COVID-19 and an increase in patients testing positive, according to local news outlets. 

Cases of Chagas, a disease caused by a parasite, have been steadily rising in the United States, but only 1 percent of cases are estimated to have been identified, NBC News reported Aug. 15.

Becker's has compiled a list of the hospitals with the highest and lowest rates of postoperative sepsis using CMS data released July 26.

It's a good question. 

A new study found two in every five deaths in the Americas involved infection associated with antimicrobial resistance.

Another individual who contracted Klebsiella pneumoniae at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center has died, bringing the total to 10 patient deaths, the hospital confirmed July 27. 

Two patients who stayed in the same Idaho hospital intensive care unit room four months apart contracted the same drug-resistant bacteria, and an investigation by state officials and the CDC found the culprit to be a sink. 

NYC Health + Hospitals led clinicians through a Marburg virus training Aug. 2 to test the health system's "ability to identify and isolate 'patients' with simulated Marburg virus symptoms and safely transport them," using hazmat suits and proper infection protocols, according to a news release shared with Becker's.

Baton Rouge, La.-based Our Lady of the Lake Health has deployed a diagnostic tool capable of detecting sepsis within 10 minutes in the hopes of saving lives from what is often dubbed a "silent killer" in hospital environments — causing 1 in 3 hospital patient deaths. 

At Northwell Health, leaders don't discount the rare causes or sources of hospital-acquired infections.