Blood cultures are the gold standard for the diagnosis of bacteremia. Blood culture testing is routinely used to diagnose infections in patients within the acute care hospital setting. The problem faced with this diagnostic test is the increase in nonpathogenic flora, which is considered contaminated flora. Contaminated blood cultures adversely impact health care and medical expenditure. False-positive blood cultures lead to unnecessary use of antibiotics, extended length of stay in the hospital and additional microbiological studies. Contaminated cultures are costly to all parties involved. The aim of this project is to decrease blood culture contamination in a Southwest Community Hospital. This paper discusses the educational intervention in an emergency department to decrease the amount of false-positive blood cultures. The implementation of the multi-step intervention was to first educate the staff on the proper collection technique, monitor the individual collectors on a monthly basis and provide one-on-one feedback on their individual contamination rate. The goal of the project was to decrease collector contamination rate below the national standard of a 3% contamination rate. The individual collectors were acknowledge for zero contaminations by their manager and counseled if exceeded the national standard. Evidence-based research studies have proven adequate monitoring and oversight contributes to significant and ongoing reductions in blood culture contamination (Denno, 2013).

Biosafety in the Laboratory is a concise set of practical guidelines for handling and disposing of biohazardous material. The consensus of top experts in laboratory safety, this volume provides the information needed for immediate improvement of safety practices. It discusses high- and low-risk biological agents (including the highest-risk materials handled in labs today), presents the "seven basic rules of biosafety," addresses special issues such as the shipping of dangerous materials, covers waste disposal in detail, offers a checklist for administering laboratory safetyâ€"and more.

The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks. The main areas covered by the toolkit are: 1. bloodborne pathogens transmitted through unsafe injection practices;2. relevant elements of standard precautions and associated barrier protection;3. best injection and related infection prevention and control practices;4. occupational risk factors and their management.

The use of drugs in food animal production has resulted in benefits throughout the food industry; however, their use has also raised public health safety concerns. The Use of Drugs in Food Animals provides an overview of why and how drugs are used in the major food-producing animal industriesâ€"poultry, dairy, beef, swine, and aquaculture. The volume discusses the prevalence of human pathogens in foods of animal origin. It also addresses the transfer of resistance in animal microbes to human pathogens and the resulting risk of human disease. The committee offers analysis and insight into these areas: Monitoring of drug residues. The book provides a brief overview of how the FDA and USDA monitor drug residues in foods of animal origin and describes quality assurance programs initiated by the poultry, dairy, beef, and swine industries. Antibiotic resistance. The committee reports what is known about this controversial problem and its potential effect on human health. The volume also looks at how drug use may be minimized with new approaches in genetics, nutrition, and animal management.

This book is a comprehensive resource for all practitioners and researchers involved in transfusion medicine.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

Hazardous waste in the environment is one of the most difficult challenges facing our society. The purpose of this book is to provide a background of the many aspects of hazardous waste, from its sources to its consequences, focusing on the risks posed to human health and the environment. It explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste; however, the scope of the book is much broader, discussing agents that are released into the environment that might not be classified as hazardous waste under the regulatory system, but nonetheless pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. It provides a background of some of the major generators of hazardous wastes, explains the pathways by which humans and wildlife are exposed, and includes discussion of the adverse health effects linked to these pollutants. It provides numerous case studies of hazardous waste mismanagement that have led to disastrous consequences, and highlights the deficiencies in science and regulation that have allowed the public to be subjected to myriad potentially hazardous agents. Finally, it provides a discussion of measures that will need to be taken to control society's hazardous waste problem. This book was designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, including students, professionals, and general readers interested in the topic. - Provides information about sources of and health risks posed by hazardous waste - Explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste - Includes numerous case studies of mismanagement, highlights deficiencies in science and regulation and discusses measures to tackle society's hazardous waste problems

Contamination in Tissue Culture covers the sources, prevention, detection, and elimination of contamination in tissue culture. Composed of 12 chapters, the book describes the frequency of occurrence of contamination and the many different effects of contamination on cultured cells. After introducing the intraspecies contamination of cell cultures, the book explains a specific type of contamination, such as bacterial, fungal, viral, and parasitic contamination. A chapter in this book describes the reversible and irreversible alterations of cultured FL human amnion cells after experimental mycoplasmal infection. Chapters 9 and 10 examine the occurrence of tissue culture contaminants by electron microscopy and procedures for isolating and identifying viral contaminants. The concluding chapter covers sterility tests of media and solutions for tissue culture and the use of antibiotics. It also summarizes the major developments made as well as future challenges in the field. This book will be helpful to investigators, teachers, students, and technicians within the many disciplines of cell biology, physiology, cytology, virology, immunology, genetics, oncology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, in which tissue and cell cultures are used, either as the primary object of research or as tools.