On the heels of the IOM recommendations, the CDC held a conference call with healthcare organizations questioning much of the report, leading many nurse and caregiver organizations to fear that the IOM recommendations would be replaced with weaker standards not borne out by the scientific evidence.

The IOM recommendations come after a recent survey sponsored by CNA/NNOC of 190 American hospitals that found wide gaps in H1N1 safety preparedness. Nurses at 15 percent of hospitals report they do not have access to the proper respirator masks, exposing nurses and patients to infection; at up to 40 percent of the hospitals, nurses are expected to reuse masks, in violation of Centers for Disease Control guidelines and IOM recommendations. In addition, at more than one-fourth of the hospitals, nurses cite inadequate isolation of swine flu patients, increasing the risk of infection to others.

Source: calnurses