Qualitative evaluation and economic estimates of an infection control champions program.

Background: In many North American hospitals, conventional infection control operational models often struggle to provide sufficient support to frontline health care workers. The objective of this study was to describe a sustainable infection control champion (ICC) program based on findings from focus groups.

Methods: A distributed model of infection control was established by placing infection prevention and control-trained ICCs in 3 Canadian hospitals for a period of 12 months.

Beat Those Bugs! Implementing contact precautions in community dialysis units for closer-to-home care.

"Beat Those Bugs!" was the call to action for the Providence Health Care Renal and Infection Prevention and Control programs to provide closer-to-home care in community dialysis units, for hemodialysis patients positive for the antibiotic-resistant organisms, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus. The initiative assessed barriers and facilitators to: implementing Contact Precautions; developing practice standards for nurses and renal technicians to enact Contact Precautions care; providing staff and patient education essential to implementing these standards; and, securing environmental and equipment supports required for Contact Precautions care. Through the "Beat Those Bugs!" initiative, all six Providence Health Care Community Dialysis Units have the capacity to provide Standard/ Routine as well as Contact Precautions care enabling patients to receive closer-to-home care in their home communities regardless of their antibiotic-resistant microorganism status.

Increased mortality in rural patients with HIV in New England.

Although patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who live in the rural United States receive less expert care and less antiretroviral treatment, the impact of living in rural areas on mortality from HIV infection is unstudied. We compared mortality rates in 327 rural and 317 urban patients with HIV infection in a retrospective cohort study using a multivariate logistic regression model. Rural patients with HIV infection were older at the end of follow-up (43.