Which animal has a chemical in its saliva that can kill Staphylococcus
aureus?
a) Dog
b) Siberian tiger
c) Snow leopard
d) Siberian brown bear
e) Komodo dragon
The answer is at the bottom of this newsletter.
Calling all infection preventionists, directors of nursing,
and nurse educators! MDH is hosting the 2018 Injection Safety Workshop, a free,
three-part webinar series. The Injection Safety Workshop will give participants
the tools to review injection safety practices within their own facility and
identify steps to create an injection safety program. Participants must
register for and attend all three sessions in order to be eligible for CEUs.
Oct. 30, Nov. 6, and Nov. 13, 2018 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CT
Learn more and register: MDH Injection Safety Workshops
Contact the MDH HAI unit at health.HAI@state.mn.us with any
questions.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Infectious Disease
Laboratory (IDL) is one of four Antibiotic
Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN) regional laboratories that will
participate in a pilot program using an HP D300e Digital Dispenser BioPrinter
to make reference antimicrobial testing panels. These panels will perform
susceptibility testing on new antibiotics before commercial testing methods are
available. MDH-IDL will receive the printer and begin preliminary testing this
fall. Once initial testing and validation are performed, testing of clinical
isolates will be made available, per special request, to test patient isolates
against new antibiotics that are resistant to almost all available standard
antibiotics. As new antibiotics are developed there are plans to include those
in the testing algorithm.
Learn more: CDC:
Pilot Program with HP Accelerates Antibiotic Testing
This year several Minnesota hospitals began tracking and
reporting antibiotic use data using the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR)
Module, a component of the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) system.
Most recently, Lakeview Hospital in
Stillwater and Sanford Bemidji Medical Center have started to use this system. In
addition to promoting the safety of their own patients, they are providing a
public health benefit. NHSN data on antibiotic use will be used to track national
and state-specific trends in hospital antibiotic use.
There are now five Minnesota hospitals submitting antibiotic
use data to NHSN, up from a single hospital at the start of this year. If you
are interested in learning more about NHSN antibiotic use reporting,
particularly to explore use within your hospital, please contact us at health.HAI@state.mn.us.
Learn more: NHSN
Antimicrobial Use and Resistance Module
The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) is CDC’s tracking
system for healthcare-associated infections. NHSN gives facilities the ability
to see their data in real time and provides analytic tools to track and compare
performance over time and against other similar facilities in the nation.
The
2018 NHSN Long-term Care Facility (LTCF) Component Training recorded videos and
PDF slidesets are now available on the NHSN
LTCF Component Training website. Presentations include 2018
NHSN updates, epidemiology and infection surveillance in long-term
care, and more.
Continuing Education
NSHN’s continuing education (CE) certificate process
includes registering for a course on the CDC Training and Continuing Education Online
system, completing the course posttest and assessment, and printing the CE
certificate. Available CEs include
CME, CNE, CPH, and CEU.
Learn more: CDC: NHSN Training
Continuing Education
Support
For training-related questions, please email NHSNtrain@cdc.gov with
the subject line “LTCF Annual Training.”
If you would like to enroll in NHSN and begin tracking Clostridium difficile events or urinary
tract infections in NHSN, support is available through MDH. Please contact
651-201-5414 or health.HAI@state.mn.us.
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Get Ahead of Sepsis is a national educational effort developed by the CDC to provide information to patients and health care professionals about how to recognize, treat, and prevent infections. Sepsis is the body's extreme response to an infection. It is life-threatening, and without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. Each year in the U.S., more than 1.5 million people develop sepsis, and at least 250,000 Americans die as a result.
Get involved: Share and download FREE educational materials for patients and health care professionals to learn how to prevent infections, be alert to the signs and symptoms of sepsis, and act fast if sepsis is suspected.
Learn more: CDC: Sepsis
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CDC offers a FREE online antibiotic stewardship training
course on CDC TRAIN. Participants can receive up to eight hours of continuing
education (CE). The course is divided into four sections. You can choose which
sections are of interest to you. Three of the sections are applicable to
outpatient settings such as clinics, dentistry, and emergency departments. The
course is designed for prescribing clinicians, nurse practitioners, physician
assistants, health education specialists, nurses, pharmacists, and public
health practitioners.
Create an account and register for this course directly on CDC TRAIN.
This course fulfills Improvement Activities (IA) Patient
Safety and Practice Assessment (PSPA)_23 and PSPA_24 under the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-Based Incentive Programs, or MIPS.
Learn more: CDC:
Antibiotic Prescribing and Use in Doctor’s Offices Continuing Education
Infection Prevention and Control - It's Everyone's Concern!
Whether partnering with others, linking information to
action, or working on the frontline, we all benefit from having the information
we need to prevent and control infections. The newly released 6th edition of
the Guide to Infection Control in the Healthcare Setting is a free online
resource released by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID).
The guide includes contributions from more than 60 infectious disease experts
and covers prevention principles and interventions for patients, families, and
health care systems to improve quality of care and patient safety while
limiting the use of antibiotics.
Learn more: ISID:
Guide to Infection Control in the Healthcare Setting
The Collaborative Healthcare-Associated Infections Network
(CHAIN) represents a partnership formed in 2011 between the Minnesota Chapter
of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
(APIC-Minnesota), the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the Minnesota
Hospital Association (MHA), and Stratis Health. In early 2017, CHAIN expanded its
membership to include organizations
representing providers across care settings.
In the Get Engaged section of the CHAIN website, you
will find a current list of offerings compiled by MDH. The list
includes tools, resources, and initiatives available in Minnesota and
information on how organizations can take an active role in preventing
healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance. It is exciting to
see all the activities going on in our state!
Learn more: CHAIN: Preventing
HAIs in Minnesota
Sept. 28, 2018, marks the 90th anniversary of Alexander
Fleming's discovery of penicillin. Today, it is now recognized as National
Penicillin Allergy Day to increase knowledge about penicillin allergies and
benefits of allergy testing. In the United States, 10 percent of people report
a penicillin allergy, but less than one percent of the population is truly
allergic. It is important to correctly identify those with and without a
penicillin allergy. This will provide more patients access to safer, less toxic
antibiotics and will help in the fight to combat antibiotic-resistant
infections.
Get involved: Download
or order free print materials from the National
Penicillin Allergy Day Tool Kit and show your commitment to raising
awareness of penicillin allergies within your health system and community!
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