National

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Launches Transforming Care at the Bedside Virtual Source Center. Ten innovative hospitals graduated from the Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) pilot program on May 13, 2008 after five years of engaging frontline nurses to improve the quality and safety of patient care on medical and surgical units and increase the vitality and retention of nurses. And now, hospitals throughout the United States have the opportunity to implement TCAB at their facility.

New website features health care innovation
The HealthCare Leadership Council last week launched a new website-Healthcare in Focus-which highlights what the health care field is doing to improve care and lead reform. Healthcare in Focus is a public education initiative of the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) and was created to promote a constructive dialogue about the state of American health care. With growing support for health care reform legislation, Healthcare in Focus seeks to ensure that reform not only builds on the many strengths of American health care but also provides solutions that improve and strengthen affordability, innovation and quality. HLC members include hospitals, pharmacies, academic medical centers, biotech firms, health plans, medical device manufacturers, health product distributors and pharmaceutical companies. Hospitals can use the site's "Tell Your Story" feature to share how they are leading the way in innovation and care.

Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and four other health care organizations released in October 2008 a compendium of strategies to help prevent the most dangerous infections that hospitals face. Distilled from the latest guidelines and scientific evidence, the compendium identifies what hospitals should be doing, and how, to prevent staph and C difficile infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, bloodstream infections caused by central-line catheters, and urinary tract and surgical site infections. In addition to the AHA, theDomestic Violence: Knowledge Path is an electronic guide to recent resources about identifying and responding to domestic violence within the home and the community. The knowledge path, produced by the MCH Library, contains information on Web sites, publications, databases, and newsletters and online discussion lists. Separate sections identify resources for families and resources about children exposed to domestic violence; dating violence among adolescents; and violence between gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender partners. The knowledge path is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_domviolence.html. partnership includes the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and The Joint Commission. The document can be found at the following link:

http://www.preventinghais.com/index.php?sid=S2008100811080729451X

Evidence Based Maternity Care

"Evidence Based Maternity Care- What it is and what it can achieve" October 2008 study from the Milbank Memorial Fund including best practices for maternity care.

Safe Lifting

This pro-bono healthcare site is designed to support safe lifting and caregiver injury prevention programs. It includes educational information, tools and resources to promote safe lifting.

IOM report suggests 20 key indicators of U.S. health
In a report this week, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee suggests policymakers, the media and the public focus on 20 specific health indicators to measure and track the overall health and well-being of Americans. The indicators reflect a range of factors that determine well-being, from smoking and physical activity to life expectancy, per capita health care spending, health insurance coverage and chronic disease prevalence. They will be used on the health section of a website being developed by State of the USA Inc. to measure and monitor the nation on a range of issues. "We believe this set of measures, as deployed by the State of the USA project, can help move the nation toward better health," said IOM committee chair George Isham. (AHA News Now, 12/17/08)

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence: Knowledge Path is an electronic guide to recent resources about identifying and responding to domestic violence within the home and the community. The knowledge path, produced by the MCH Library, contains information on Web sites, publications, databases, and newsletters and online discussion lists. Separate sections identify resources for families and resources about children exposed to domestic violence; dating violence among adolescents; and violence between gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender partners. The knowledge path is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_domviolence.html.

OSHA Best Practices for Hospital-Based First Receivers of Victims from Mass Casualty Incidents Involving the Release of Hazardous Substances

Published in January 2005, this best practices document provides practical information to help hospitals address employee protection and training as part of emergency planning for mass casualty incidents involving hazardous substances. OSHA considers sound planning the first line of defense in all types of emergencies (including emergencies involving chemical, biological, or radiological substances).

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires an all-hazard approach to allow organizations to be flexible enough to respond to emergencies of all types, whether natural or manmade (unintentional or intentional).