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ON May 23rd, 2008, the French Ministry of Health launched a national hand cleanliness campaign targeting health care workers, patients, and the general public. The campaign emphasizes that proper hand hygiene is the key element in preventing and controlling nosocomial infections.
It is critical that a through cleansing of one’s hands with a liquid alcohol solution containing an emollient to protect the skin precedes all health care treatments, no matter where they are carried out. All health care establishments throughout the country should see to it that these solutions are available at patient’s bed. Health care workers would also be required to carry a small bottle of disinfectant in the pockets of their uniform. |
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NOSOCOMIAL INFECTONS ARE NOT INEVITABLE |
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Written by Christine Besson
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Sunday, 27 May 2007 |
.jpg "chambre h(1).jpg") Yes, nosocomial infections (NI's) can be prevented and it is imperative that we establish a zero-tolerance policy for substandard and unsafe health care. A campaign recently launched in Quebec entitled "Together we can improve patient safety [1]" demonstrates this point. The campaign was initiated by the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montréal (CHUM) at a conference held on March 27 th and March 28th, 2007, and brought together over three hundred participants from Quebec, Canada, the USA and Europe. Thirty teams representing fifteen different health care organizations are participating in this campaign and ANVIN is one of the partners.
Three of the campaigns objectives concern the following types of nosocomial infections: operating room infections, blood infections caused by catheters inserted in patients veins, and pneumonia attributed to a breathing apparatus. Not only do these three types of infections account for 40% of all nosocomial infections, they are among the most serious and deadly.
The results presented at the conference clearly demonstrate that 50% to 90% of NI's can be prevented by employing simple precautionary measures and that infection prevention is much less expensive that treating infections once they occur. Not only can the infection rate be significantly reduced, but also the number of hospital days recuperated can be used to treat thousands of patients currently awaiting treatment. Needless to say, hospitals are able to save valuable health care dollars.
Above all, the prevention of NI's is a question of properly managing human resources, hospital equipment, and budgets at each and every level of the health care system. The Ministère de Santé as well as hospital administrators need to make patient safety a priority. This was outlined in the Aucoin Committee Report on Nosocomial Infections.
Infection prevention must never be taken for granted and it is essential that we aim for better results.
"We have entered an new era in the improvement of infection control. A zero-infection rate should not be considered an impossible dream, but rather as something that can be achieved by the implementation of proven infection control measures." (Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, March 2007, vol. 28 #3).
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