News
Contact precautions linked to fewer and shorter patient visits
Major Finding: Patients on contact precautions had 2.78 visits per hour from health care workers, compared with 4.37 visits per hour among those...
Dr. Harris, acting medical director of infection control at the University of Maryland Medical Center, is involved in a randomized study evaluating whether universal glove and gown precautions lead to improved or worse outcomes. The study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), also is examining the frequency of health care worker visits and adverse events and should "provide more definitive answers to the important question of whether contact precautions lead to more adverse events," he said.
Financial support for Dr. Morgan’s study was provided by the VA Health Affairs Services Research and Development Investigator Initiated Research, Association of American Medical Colleges/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and AHRQ. Dr. Morgan disclosed having received an unrestricted research grant from Merck; the other authors had no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Harris is on the board of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, which publishes Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
E.Mechcatie@elsevier.com