Hospital Medicine News

SEATTLE — The first U.S. cluster of pediatric Candida auris cases was likely caused by shared mobile medical equipment that was not properly sanitized after being used for adult patients, an investigation found.

SEATTLE — New hospital-onset cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection outpaced community-onset cases after England and Scotland stopped requiring hospitals to test asymptomatic patients at admission, researchers reported.

SEATTLE — Veterans Affairs facilities that opted not to suspend active surveillance and contact precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic reported fewer health care-associated MRSA infections, especially in ICUs, researchers found.

Making key changes to pulse oximetry alarm defaults could help hospitals reduce nonactionable alarms, allowing staff to focus on actionable alarms, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

Treatment with a monoclonal antibody within 2 days of a COVID-19 diagnosis reduced the risk for hospitalization or death by almost 40%, according to a study that assessed patient outcomes over a nearly 2-year period.

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of U.S. cases of Candida auris, which has been deemed a pathogen of concern, according to experts.

ED visits for firearm injuries slightly declined in 2022 but remained 20% higher compared with rates in 2019 and were significantly prevalent among children, according to data in MWWR.

Initiating buprenorphine in the ED to patients with opioid use disorder was safe, with fewer than 1% of patients experiencing precipitated withdrawal despite a high prevalence of fentanyl use, a recent study found.

Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast causing nosocomial infections. First identified in 2009 in Japan, C. auris has now also been isolated in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia.

People with severe community-acquired pneumonia who were treated with hydrocortisone had a lower risk for death 28 days after diagnosis compared with those who received placebo, a phase 3 trial found.