Search results for "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)"

Concerns about patient harm from prescription opioid misuse are increasing in the United States. This website provides guidelines for use of opioid medications and information to raise awareness about the need to improve physicians' prescribing decisions and patients' medication use.

Opioid pain medications carry high risk for adverse drug events and misuse. Due to climbing rates of opioid use and associated adverse events, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain. These guidelines do not apply to patients receiving cancer treatment, palliative care, or end-of-life care. The authors recommend using opioids for chronic pain only if nonopioid medications and nonpharmacologic approaches to chronic pain are not effective and prescribing immediate-release instead of long-acting medications. For acute pain, they recommend limiting duration of therapy, stating that more than 1 week of medications should rarely be needed. The guidelines also suggest minimizing concurrent use of opioids and other sedating medications and dispensing naloxone to prevent overdoses. A previous WebM&M commentary describes an adverse event related to opioids.

Health care–associated infections (HAI) are a worldwide patient safety problem. This article and accompanying set of infographics spotlight the importance of addressing HAIs and provide updates on improvements associated with better use of catheters, appropriate patient isolation, and increased vigilance to reduce the risks of antibiotic-resistant infections.

This newsletter article and accompanying set of infographics describes strategies to help patients and health care providers prevent health care–associated infections.

This report suggests strategies to prevent infections in the outpatient setting and provides links to more detailed infection prevention information.

Health care–associated infection is a persistent patient safety problem. This website provides resources related to a national health care–associated infection and blood safety error monitoring program that allows organizations to identify areas of weakness and track the impact of improvements.

Opioid medications are frequently associated with adverse drug events in inpatient and outpatient settings. This surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated that the magnitude of patient harm from opioid use is growing rapidly. Opioid overdose deaths are increasing each year, through 2015, and current rates are the highest ever recorded. The types of opioids most commonly involved in overdose deaths are natural and semisynthetic opioids, which are often prescribed as pain relievers. The authors suggest that the adoption of new prescribing guidelines and more widespread use of the opioid reversal agent naloxone will help address this growing epidemic. An earlier version of this article included data through 2014. A previous WebM&M commentary described a fatal opioid overdose.

Sepsis has been a significant focus of quality improvement initiatives. In this retrospective review, researchers sought to identify patient characteristics, risk factors, and infections that might inform sepsis diagnosis, treatment, and prevention efforts. The medical records of a random sample of 246 adult and 79 pediatric patients with codes for severe sepsis or septic shock across 4 New York hospitals were reviewed. Investigators found that 72% of patients had exposure to at least one health care factor during the 30 days prior to being admitted for sepsis or a medical condition requiring frequent health care contact. Pneumonia was the most frequently documented infection causing sepsis. They concluded that reducing sepsis will require an ongoing focus on infection prevention.

Delayed diagnosis of sepsis can have serious consequences. This article and accompanying set of infographics spotlight the importance of prompt identification and treatment of sepsis and suggest how providers, organizations, patients, and families can help improve recognition of sepsis.

Nurse fatigue has been associated with diminished decision-making skills that can contribute to patient harm. This online training program for clinicians and administrators will explore hazards related to nurse fatigue and provide strategies to address behaviors and systems that increase these risks.

This annual analysis explores rates of health care–associated infections reported in the United States. Data from 2013 revealed significant reductions central line–associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections, while rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections increased, raising awareness of the need for enhanced prevention efforts nationwide.

This Web site provides information for providers and patients to reduce risks related to adverse drug events, including links to fact sheets, research, and government initiatives.

This Web site offers resources related to a collaborative involving public health agencies, private organizations, patient advocates, and experts in developing strategies and recommendations to prevent accidental medication overdoses in children.

This Web site provides information about government initiatives to research and prevent health care–associated infections.

This Web site provides resources to help identify, track, and prevent health care–associated infections in the United States.

This toolkit provides guidance and resources to help organizations inform patients about infection control lapses.

This commentary examines unsafe injection practices in the United States and reviews a four-element approach to reduce risks.

This program raises awareness of safe injection practices and provides materials to engage staff and patients in improvement efforts.

This statement describes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines on appropriate use of single-dose vials to prevent disease transmission.

This Web site provides resources for patients and practitioners to help reduce risk of infection during outpatient chemotherapy.