Publication Highlight
Time-Series Analysis of Health Care鈥揂ssociated Infections in a New Hospital With All Private Rooms听 (Emily G.听McDonald,听MD, MSc; Nandini听Dendukuri,听PhD; Charles听Frenette,听MD; et al)
Health care鈥揳ssociated infections are often caused by multidrug-resistant organisms and substantially factor into hospital costs and avoidable iatrogenic harm. Although it is recommended that new facilities be built with single-room, low-acuity beds, this process is costly and evidence of reductions in health care鈥揳ssociated infections is weak.
Conclusions from the study indicated that the move to a new hospital with exclusively single-patient rooms appeared to be associated with a sustained decrease in the rates of new MRSA and VRE colonization and VRE infection; however, the move was not associated with a reduction in CDI or MRSA infection. These findings may have important implications for the role of hospital construction in facilitating infection control.
Publication Highlight
Effect of an Electronic Medication Reconciliation Intervention on Adverse Drug Events
A Cluster Randomized Trial (Robyn听Tamblyn,听MSc, PhD, FCAHS, CM; Michal听Abrahamowicz,听PhD; David L.听Buckeridge,听MD, PhD; et al)
Adverse drug events (ADEs) account for up to 16% of emergency department (ED) visits and 7% of hospital admissions. Medication reconciliation is required for hospital accreditation because it can reduce medication discrepancies, but there is no evidence that reducing discrepancies reduces ADEs or other adverse outcomes.
Electronic medication reconciliation reduced medication discrepancies but did not reduce ADEs or other adverse outcomes. Hospital accreditation should focus on interventions that reduce the risk of adverse events for patients with multiple changes to community medications.