Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/774606
12 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY FDA Bans Powdered Gloves, Citing Risks to Patients and Providers By Heather Punke F ollowing through on a rule proposed in March, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule Dec. 19 banning powered gloves for healthcare workers, as they "present an unreasonable and substan- tial risk of illness or injury." Glove makers put powder on gloves as a lubricant to make donning the gloves easier. However, according to the FDA, when internal body tissue is exposed to the powder, it can case severe airway inflammation and hy- persensitivity reactions. Additionally, powder particles can trigger an immune response, causing tissue to form around the particles, which can complicate surgeries. "[T]he risk of illness or injury posed by powdered gloves is unreasonable and substantial," reads the FDA's final rule. The ban, covering powdered surgeon's gloves, pow- dered patient examination gloves and absorbable pow- der for lubricating a surgeon's glove, becomes effective Jan. 18. The FDA does not expect the ban to cause a glove shortage in the industry. The FDA has only banned one other medical device in its history. Prosthetic hair fibers have been banned since 1983, since they did not stimulate hair growth and could instead cause serious infections, illnesses and injuries. n 769 Hospitals See Medicare Payments Cut Over High HAC Rates: 6 Things to Know By Morgan Haefner T he federal government is cutting 769 hospitals' Medicare payments in fiscal year 2017 for having the highest rates of hospital-acquired conditions. is is the first year the spread of antibiotic-re- sistant bacteria, in the form of methicillin-re- sistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile infections, was included in the assess- ment. Affected hospitals will lose 1 percent of Medicare payments from October 2016 to September 2017. Here are six things to know about the HAC Re- duction Program and the penalized hospitals. 1. e Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduc- tion Program was created under the ACA to incentivize hospitals to curb hospital-ac- quired conditions. 2. In FY 2017, 769 of the 3,313 hospitals subject to the HAC Reduction Program rank in the worst-performing quartile of hospitals that reported hospital-acquired conditions. 3. e Association of American Medical Col- leges estimates hospitals will lose approxi- mately $430 million in total as a result of the Medicare payment cuts — 18 percent more than last year, Kaiser Health News reports. CMS did not release the dollar amount of the penalties, although many large hospitals could see payment reductions in the millions, ac- cording to the report. 4. A Kaiser Health News analysis found 306 hospi- tals penalized this year were not punished in the HAC Reduction Program's first two years. 5. e worst-performing quartile for the FY 2017 HAC Reduction Program was de- termined by calculating a total HAC score based on hospitals' performance on six quality measures: the Patient Safety Indica- tors 90 Composite, central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infec- tions, MRSA infections and C. diff infections. 6. Hospitals with a total HAC score above the 75th percentile of the total HAC score distri- bution were subject to the Medicare payment cut. n How Does Hospital Patient Room Design Affect HAI Rates? By Anuja Vaidya A hospital's infrastructure, including accessibility of an- tiseptic hand rub dispensers and single-or multi-bed patient rooms, can influence healthcare-associated colonization and infection rates, according to a study in Anti- microbial Resistance & Infection Control. Researchers examined PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1990 to 2015. They identified three studies focusing on the acces- sibility of antiseptic hand rub dispensers; and nine studies focusing on single-patient rooms' impact on healthcare-as- sociated colonization and infection rates as compared to multi-bed patient rooms or an open ward design. Each of the three studies focusing on the hand rub dispensers showed a significant improvement in hand hygiene compli- ance when the dispensers were placed near the patient bed. Of the nine studies focusing on patient room design, six stud- ies showed single-patient rooms were associated with re- duced healthcare-associated colonization and infection rates, while the remaining three found that single-patient rooms are neither a protective nor a risk factor. "Implementation of single-patient rooms and easily accessible hand rub dispensers located near the patient's bed are bene- ficial for infection control and are useful parts of a multifaceted strategy for reducing healthcare-associated colonization and infections," study authors concluded. n