A medical clinic in Texas is warning patients and visitors of a potential exposure to bacterial meningitis after a pediatric patient died of the illness Dec. 30, reports KHOU 11 News Houston.

A majority of U.S. adults believe the influenza vaccine is safe and effective, survey results published in Vaccine shows.

Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Jordan, Utah, temporarily closed its operating room this summer after a state health department inspection found infection control and patient safety issues, according to a KUTV, a CBS-affiliated TV station.

More than 20 years after the publication of the Institute of Medicine's seminal report "To Err is Human" — which sought to cut preventable medical mistakes by half — progress toward safer care has been slow. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that public and private efforts reduced hospital-acquired conditions by 13 percent from 2014-17, helping to prevent more than 20,000 deaths and saving $7.7 billion in healthcare costs. That's welcome news, but given that there are as many as 400,000 preventable deaths from medical mistakes each year, we wonder why more health systems aren't rushing to implement proven safety and quality solutions.

A woman who had her leg amputated after healthcare workers from University of Louisville (Ky.) Hospital left a sponge in her was awarded $10.5 million, according to a Louisville Courier Journal report.

During a surveillance study at Veteran Affairs facilities, researchers identified a newly recognized strain of Clostridioides difficile that is highly resistant to the antibiotic clindamycin, the CDC reports. 

Women who received one dose of the HPV vaccine may gain similar protection against infection as compared with those who received more doses, a study published in JAMA Network Open found.

Three emergency department employees at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain have contracted the mumps, and the hospital is now offering a third dose of the mumps vaccine to other ED employees, according to WTNH, an ABC TV affiliate.

Patients do not place great value on a healthcare organization's religious affiliation when deciding where to receive care, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

A Washington state agency that covers healthcare costs for Medicaid patients and has the power to audit providers receiving those funds has stayed largely dormant as allegations of patient safety issues in the state's psychiatric hospitals have increased, a Seattle Times investigation found.

The CDC giving an official name to the vaping-related illness that has resulted in 2,506 hospitalizations and 54 deaths across the country was the top-read story on Becker's Clinical Leadership & Infection Control in 2019.

There have been at least 4.6 million influenza-related illnesses, 39,000 hospitalizations and 2,100 deaths in the 2019-20 flu season in the U.S., according to the CDC's FluView report.

As the world grappled with major measles outbreaks across the globe this year, China took significant steps toward reducing the number of measles cases and deaths associated with them, the CDC reports.

Duluth, Minn.-based St. Luke's Hospital is facing allegations of neglect after two incidents of a patient being found in the morning lying on a bedpan with a wound in the shape of the bedpan on her bottom, according to a Duluth News Tribune. State health officials blamed inadequate staffing, but the hospital pushed back.

Hundreds of cases of Aspergillus mold infections at Washington hospitals occurred after patients were admitted in the last decade, a Seattle Times analysis shows, but that does not mean the patients contracted the infection from the hospital.

A new program to better care for intensive care unit patients experiencing alcohol withdrawal has helped three University of Colorado Health hospitals lower death rates.

Below are seven hospitals and health systems that are seeking patient experience leaders.

After California enacted a policy to ban nonmedical vaccination exemptions for school-age children in 2016, the overall coverage for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine increased by 3.3 percent, a study published in PLOS Medicine shows.

Without medical coders, the healthcare system would come to a halt. These professionals are responsible for coding information documented by physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants into the correct format for billing and reporting purposes.

The World Health Organization has confirmed the first case of a relapse in the ongoing Ebola virus epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.