Environmental cleaning and disinfection: Sustaining changed practice and improving quality in the community hospital.

Objective: Short-term improvements in hospital room cleaning can readily be achieved but are difficult to maintain. This is particularly true for high-risk, "high-touch" surfaces. Therefore, we embarked on a process to sustain improvements in surface cleaning and disinfection to reduce hospital-acquired infection (HAI) rates.

Therapeutic Touch in the Management of Responsive Behaviors in Patients with Dementia.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the use of therapeutic touch (TT) in the management of responsive behaviors in patients with dementia.

Methods: A randomized, double-blinded control trial was used to compare response to TT in a population with responsive behaviors in dementia, in 3 phases, pretreatment, treatment, and posttreatment each lasting 5 days. The participants were divided into three groups: experimental, placebo, and control.

Successful reduction in catheter-associated urinary tract infections: focus on nurse-directed catheter removal.

Background: Despite using sterile technique for catheter insertion, closed drainage systems, and structured daily care plans, catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) regularly occur in acute care hospitals. We believe that meaningful reduction in CAUTI rates can only be achieved by reducing urinary catheter use.

Methods: We used an interventional study of a hospital-wide, multidisciplinary program to reduce urinary catheter use and CAUTIs on all patient care units in a 300-bed, community teaching hospital in Connecticut.

Opinions of West Texas pharmacists about emergency contraception.

Background: The pharmacist's role in dispensing emergency contraception (EC) has become controversial due to the intersection of personal and professional ethics. Therefore, to examine the issue of EC availability, we surveyed a sample of West Texas pharmacists. West Texas is a religiously and politically conservative region where no methods of EC have been made available.

Influenza vaccination: a collaborative effort to improve the health of the community.

Background: The need to improve influenza vaccination delivery in our community became painfully clear during the winter of 1997-1998 when high rates of respiratory illness led to congestion in the emergency department and a critical shortage of hospital beds. In response, the local hospital and the Department of Health launched a collaborative program to increase influenza vaccine coverage in the community.

Methods: The partnership was designed to increase the number of citizens receiving influenza vaccine and to moderate the severity of lower respiratory tract illness during the winter season.