Infection Control

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients face a 22 percent higher risk of developing sepsis and are 113 percent more likely to experience septic shock compared to hospitalized influenza patients, according to an Epic Health Research Network report published Nov. 19. 

Decontaminating surfaces in airports, public transit vehicles and other public settings does little to prevent the spread of COVID-19 indoors, scientists told The New York Times.

The American Medical Association is calling for physicians and healthcare workers to voluntarily take appropriate measures to protect others if they are not immunized from a vaccine-preventable disease, according to an ethical guidance amendment approved during a Nov. 16 meeting.  

Iowa public health officials are struggling to reach individuals with COVID-19, making it difficult to conduct contact tracing and request that the infected individuals stay home, reports The Des Moines Register.

University of Vermont Medical Center's Fanny Allen Campus in Colchester is shutting down its operating rooms again after more nurses report nausea and dizziness, reports VTDigger.

St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton, Wash., is investigating its second COVID-19 outbreak since August.

More than half of disposable isolation gowns tested by the ECRI Institute failed to meet standard protection levels, the patient safety organization said Nov. 10.

Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston fared poorly after a CMS investigation found several hospital employees arriving without face masks and unsanitary conditions in rooms, reports Maine Public. 

Hospital floors may be a larger source of bacteria infection spread than previously thought, according to a study published Nov. 2 in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 

Healdsburg District Hospital in California undertook a daylong effort Oct. 26 to test all of its staff members for COVID-19 after 14 employees contracted the virus this month, reports KTVU.