Results and lessons from a hospital-wide initiative incentivised by delivery system reform to improve infection prevention and sepsis care.

Background: An academic safety-net hospital leveraged the federally funded state Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment programme to implement a hospital-wide initiative to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and improve sepsis care.

Methods: The study period was from 2013 to 2017. The setting is a 770-bed urban hospital with six intensive care units and a large emergency department.

Laboratory tests on mercury emission monitoring with resonating gold-coated silicon cantilevers.

To measure extremely low concentrations of mercury vapor in gases as encountered in flue gases of coal-fired power plants, accurate and reliable online and/or portable mercury detection systems are needed. As discussed in this communication, resonating silicon-based cantilevers coated with thin films of gold change their resonant frequency when exposed to mercury vapors and could serve as the basis for such sensing devices. Two different types of commercial AFM cantilevers, which differed by physical dimensions and surface finish, were coated with a 10 nm film of gold and were tested in streams of argon containing mercury.