|
Your
One Stop |
|
Brought
to You in Association with PipeDoctor,USA  |
| Exam Gloves Latex Powdered Powder Free Nitrile Vinyl Industrial Safety Utility
|
  Overview
of relationship between maintaining a clean environment and prevention of
healthcare associated infections
This provocative headline was derived from the January 2003 cover of Consumer Reports, which asks, How safe is your hospital? While this seems like an unlikely location for such a report, alongside stories that rate microwave ovens and water filters, the story does highlight the public's growing concern with safety and quality of care in healthcare facilities. A significant component of adverse events associated with healthcare are healthcare-associated infections or HAIs. A series of articles on the subject appeared in the Chicago Tribune during the summer of 2002, "Infection Epidemic Carves Deadly Path." The newspaper's investigation found that unhealthy hospitals added to concerns and negative perceptions by patient? The purpose of the following article is to offer an overview of the problem of HAIs, how such infections are transmitted, review the scientific evidence that implicates the environment as a source of the germs causing HAIs, and place the role of the environment in proper context. HAIs: An important component of patient safety HAIs are a serious, deadly problem. Estimates place these infections as the nation's fourth leading cause of death. Approximately 2 million HAIs occur each year; there are almost 88,000 deaths attributed to these complications of healthcare, and treatments cost an estimated $4.6 billion annually. From this it is apparent that HAIs cause problems similar to those of adverse events involving medications affecting the recovery, or in some instances, survival of patients receiving care. In contrast to significant emphasis on the negative aspects of HAIs outlined in the Chicago Tribune series, over the last decade there have been significant decreases in bloodstream infections. This finding plus interventions advocated by infection control professionals suggest that such efforts are growing inure effective. These include: * strict attention to hand hygiene by healthcare personnel, * effective antisepsis of skin of patients before invasive procedures, * appropriate use of newer antimicrobial-impregnated devices, and * attention to hygiene of the patient care environment. Germs on hands cause most HAIs The majority of HAIs are caused by germs that are transmitted to patients on the hands of healthcare personnel. The list of these is broad but the most frequent ones encountered include Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase negative Staphylococci (CNS), Enterococcus species, E. coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Some of these germs are picked up and carried on the skin of healthcare personnel. Although environmental surfaces around patients can serve as a reservoir fur these germs, they usually are not a direct cause of infection in patients or personnel. Instead, there is a series of events that have to occur in sequence for these germs to be transferred from the environment to the patient. Preventing transmission A key aspect to preventing transmission of germs is sustained hand hygiene by personnel during patient care. During a press conference announcing release of file 2002 Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention director Dr. Julie Gerberding stated, "hand hygiene is a critical component of patient safety and really saves lives in healthcare settings ... this guideline includes recommendations about adding alcohol based products because of the special vulnerability of the patients in the healthcare environment and the special pathogens that exist there, including those that have high levels and multiple drug resistance."
|
|
