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WHO Updates Essential Medicines List
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its list
of essential medicines, including the biggest revision of the antibiotic section since the list was written 40 years ago.
WHO now groups antibiotics into three categories:
Access.
Drugs widely used to treat common infections. WHO recommends antibiotics in this group be available at all times.
Watch.
Includes antibiotics with a higher resistance potential. WHO recommends their use as first- or second-choice treatments for a few specific infections.
Reserve.
Antibiotics in this group should be considered a "last resort" and only used in specific patients and settings when other drugs have failed.
Details are available here.
1980 Letter to Editor played role in opioid epidemic
A letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 1980 has likely contributed to the current opioid epidemic. The five-line piece was submitted by researchers studying narcotic drugs in hospitals and concluded that "the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction."
A new Correspondence piece in the June 1 NEJM argues the opioid epidemic was caused, in part, because physicians "were told that the risk of addiction was low when opioids were prescribed for chronic pain" despite a lack of evidence to back up the conclusion.
 Protective equipment crucial
to infection reduction
Faced with emerging threats of new pathogens and antibiotic resistance, many health care providers are renewing a focus on reduction of nosocomial infections.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a crucial aspect of reducing infection transmission, but clinicians don't always use these correctly to ensure maximum protection. Mary Cross and Caroline Ginn, PPE experts in Dublin, Ohio, hold nearly 50 years of combined clinical experience. Read here what they consider to be the most common PPE mistakes, and how hospitals can boost compliance.
Improving the cultural
environment
in the workplace
With front-line providers experiencing increased burnout and compassion fatigue
in the era of value-based care, hospital and health system leaders must seek to create a cultural environment where nurses can thrive. According to a recent article, nurses spend more time with patients than any other provider, and leaders should expend extra effort to keep nurses engaged. Three areas of focus for nurse engagement are identified, including Empowerment, Embracing Humanness and Fostering Resilience. Read more.
Health care staff, patients identify rules to be broken
Healthcare organizations can take specific action to mitigate the burden of unnecessary regulations without sparking political battles or slogging through policy changes, according to a viewpoint
published in JAMA. The article details an initiative to identify and eliminate unnecessary rules and regulations.
To identify rules perceived as unnecessary, 24 healthcare organizations from the IHI's Leadership Alliance tapped staff and patients for their feedback. Across 24 health care organizations (staff and patients), 342 rules were identified, and common themes that emerged included visiting hours, Medicare's three-day rule, licensure rules and more.
"Healthcare leaders may be well advised to ask their clinicians, staffs and patients which habits and rules appear to be harming care without commensurate benefits and, with prudence and circumspection, to change them," the authors concluded.
Roughly 700 CDC positions vacant following hiring freeze
The CDC has hundreds of unfilled positions following a federal government hiring freeze implemented by President Trump in January, according to The Washington Post.
The Office of Management and Budget gave agencies until the end of June to submit a plan to reduce their civilian workforces. Meanwhile, nearly 700 positions (at least 125 job categories, each covering a number of people) remain vacant, including high-level positions.
Stroke statistics for nurses, patients to know
Stroke represents the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. To boost stroke awareness, Becker's Hospital Review has published seven statistics about the disease's prevalence in 2017:
- Each year, 133,000 Americans die from a stroke.
- Thirty-five percent of Americans have experienced at least one symptom of a mini-stroke, or transient ischemic attack.
- The number of strokes in the U.S. is expected to increase by 20.5 percent between 2012 and 2030.
- The average hospital cost for a stroke victim is $21,826.
- Strokes cost the U.S. economy $34 billion annually.
- Ten percent of stroke survivors make a full recovery, and 25 percent recover with minor impairments. Forty percent of survivors experience moderate to severe impairments that require special care.
- Fourteen percent of stroke survivors experience a second stroke within a year of the first.
More information about stroke may be found at:
- www.stroke.org - the National Stroke Association offers education, resources, services, and legislative advocacy focused on the needs of stroke survivors, caregivers and healthcare professionals.
- www.strokeassociation.org/ - learn more about the American Stroke Association and its efforts to reduce death and disability caused by stroke.
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