Safe Healthcare Blog

Hosted by CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. If you have questions or comments about healthcare safety topics, please contact CDC-INFO at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/dcs/ContactUs/Form.

The Journey to an Infection Prevention and Control Career

Janet Glowicz getting ready for rounds.

The Journey to an Infection Prevention and Control Career In the complex world of health care, infection prevention and control (IPC) is crucial to keeping everyone safe. IPC helps protect healthcare professionals and reduces patients’ risk for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which they can get while or soon after receiving care. HAIs can lead to prolonged Read More >

Posted on by Janet Glowicz, MPH, Ph.D, RN, CIC, LTC-CIP, Morgan Kuhnly MSN, RN, CIC and Mia FrederickTags

CDC and Global Partners Commit to Collective Action to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Andi Fristedt and Dan Jernigan

In late September 2024, global leaders gathered in New York City for the second United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting (UNGA HLM) on Antimicrobial Resistance. Since the first UNGA HLM on Antimicrobial Resistance in 2016, the United States (U.S.) has made tremendous progress toward the goals in the U.S. National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-resistant Read More >

Posted on by Michael Craig, MPP, Director, Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit, CDC1 CommentTags ,

A failing health care system caused my husband’s death

Vonda Vaden Bates and her late husband Yogiraj Charles Bates.

This opinion article was originally published in STAT: A failing health care system caused my husband’s death. His care team was incredibly kind, but they lacked the resources to save his life. On Tuesday, September 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agency for Healthcare Read More >

Posted on by Guest Author Vonda Vaden Bates, a patient safety advocate.6 CommentsTags

Dentists: Improve patient safety by optimizing antibiotic prescribing

Dr. Erinne Kennedy is smiling wearing a purple blazer and a white collared shirt underneath. The background is faded.

Dentists prescribe approximately 10% of all outpatient antibiotics in the United States.1 Many of these antibiotic prescriptions may not be needed based on existing guidelines. Studies show that patients with total joint replacement (TJR) commonly receive unnecessary antibiotic prophylaxis [PDF – 1 Page] despite clinical practice guidelines from the American Dental Association (ADA) and American Academy of Read More >

Posted on by Erinne Kennedy, DMD, MPH, MMSc3 CommentsTags

Effective diagnostic processes and patient safety means not having to ask “What if”

Col. Steven L. Coffee

“What If” I was seen, heard, and treated like a partner? Regarded as the greatest English novelist during the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens once said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” Those words never rang truer than Read More >

Posted on by Col. Steven L. Coffee2 CommentsTags ,