Feed Editor 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST Briefings in Healthcare Environmental Services provides industry-specific news and information to ASHES members and other industry professionals. Delivered weekly, the publication keeps subscribers and their staffs informed of topics that impact the environmental services industry. http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/ashes/briefings.xml en A team of researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, have found that widespread poor compliance with regular cleaning of public restrooms on cruise ships may predict subsequent norovirus infection outbreaks (NoVOs). This study, which appears in the Nov. 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, is the first study of environmental hygiene on cruise ships. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af0a88acae98 1 The American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services has elected as its president for 2010 Fiona Nemetz, director of environmental services, patient transportation, safety and parking at Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af19f8a80f9d 2 In a dramatic settlement seen as a novel pattern for the nation, the nation's largest nurses union and professional association, and one of the country's biggest hospital systems announced a landmark agreement that sets a national standard on containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1 influenza. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af0a8f37004e 3 Be sure to wash up, Maryland doctors and nurses. You're being watched. State officials said they're creating teams of staff members at hospitals around the state to secretly monitor their colleagues' hand-washing habits as part of a first-of-its-kind program. The monitors will contribute to a systemwide report on hand-washing, using $100,000 in federal stimulus money. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af0ab4b61c9d 4 A strain of MRSA that causes bloodstream infections is five times more lethal than other strains and has shown to have some resistance to the potent antibiotic drug vancomycin used to treat MRSA, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af0aaaebf347 5 Overflowing hospital emergency rooms have been getting more crowded for years, and now concerns about the H1N1 flu virus are taxing emergency care facilities and physicians even further. Yet the operations of emergency departments are vital, not only for the ability to quickly treat the seriously ill and injured, but to a hospital’s financial health. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af1a338368d3 6 In a study of 1,088 California patients with 2009 H1N1 flu reported in the Nov. 4 Journal of the American Medical Association, infants had the highest hospitalization rates and patients over 50 had the highest death rate. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af1a0215b50f 7 Order three Environmental Services training DVDs by December 31, 2009 and get two free! Browse the catalogue of programs to educate your staff on topics ranging from H1N1 prevention to proper procedures for cleaning operating rooms. Click here. to order your DVDs today. 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af1a7e08554a 8 The design of a consultation room can improve the quality of an outpatient visit. A collaborative research study, developed by Nurture by Steelcase and Mayo Clinic, was conducted to understand the extent to which a consultation room designed to support present-day clinical encounters could affect the consultation between patients and clinicians. The results of this randomized trial, the first of its kind, will appear in the Fall issue of Health Environments Research and Design Journal (HERD). 5 Nov 2009 10:00:36 CST http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4af1a3e4ab229 9