Hospice and Palliative Care News

HOUSTON — Natural language processing could reduce the need for manual chart reviews to determine a patient’s risk for carrying or being infected with multidrug-resistant organisms, according to a study.

HOUSTON — Using social network analysis, researchers were able to show how health care facilities in Colorado are connected by patient transfers, which allowed them to identify potential outbreak origins.

The cost-effectiveness of routine COVID-19 testing among nursing home staff depended on the virulence of variants circulating during the time of testing, researchers found.

The results of the second annual national primary care scorecard suggest the field is facing major problems — poor funding and a diminishing workforce, among them — but increased attention on the issues may offer hope, according to experts.

A national survey of ID fellowship program directors revealed that only about a third of programs have a dedicated infection prevention and control and health care epidemiology training track.

The FDA in 2023 approved treatments for several hospital-associated infections and fully approved a long-used COVID-19 medication, among other non-vaccine-related regulatory decisions.

Hospital-associated infections declined significantly at acute-care hospitals in 2022, although rates at other health care facilities remained relatively stagnant, according to a CDC report.

Although using artificial intelligence could be helpful for some aspects of patient care, experts say relying on the technology without the aid of an infectious disease consult could be hazardous for patients, a recent study showed.

Updated recommendations for MRSA prevention in acute-care facilities suggest contact precautions for patients known to be infected are “essential,” although researchers argue data do not justify the recommendation.

Using wet wipes to clean bedridden patients with catheters resulted in fewer catheter-associated UTIs, researchers in Spain reported.