News in brief - Dec. 19, 2011

Video surveillance improves hand hygiene

A Big Brother-style approach to monitoring whether physicians, nurses and other health professionals wash their hands when they are supposed to is effective, according to a Nov. 21 Clinical Infectious Diseases study (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22109950).

A 17-bed hospital intensive care unit in Manhasset, N.Y., had hand-hygiene compliance rates of 10% as measured by a remote video monitoring service in which recording began when sensors detected that a person entered the patient area. After the 16-week observation period, health professionals received feedback on their hand-hygiene compliance as observed by the service, and performance was displayed on electronic boards mounted in the ICU's hallways. With the feedback, hand-washing compliance improved to 82% in the subsequent 16 weeks and increased to 88% over 75 weeks, the study said.

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Illinois to provide more transparency of physician discipline

A new Illinois law will make it easier for individuals to get information about the status of a complaint against a physician or other health professional from the Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation.

The law amends the state's Medical Practice Act of 1987, obligating the department to release information about the status of a complaint or disciplinary review to any person who requests it (www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=097-0449). Under existing law, the department is required only to notify the complainant in writing of any final action relating to a complaint.

The new legislation also will require the agency's disciplinary board to notify the person who filed a complaint of the time and location of an upcoming hearing at least 14 days in advance. The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2012, is an example of recent efforts by states to make the physician disciplinary process more transparent to the public.

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