|
|
|
Have you ever been admitted to the hospital for surgery or illness? Have you ever caught an infection unrelated to your surgery or illness? If so, you have been the victim of a nosocomial infection also known as hospital-acquired infections.
C. difficile, MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus), are well known, but there are many others.
Do you know that you have more chances to die from a nosocomial infection than from a car accident?
Every year in Quebec, 90 000 people are afflicted by these infections and, of that number, 4000 die immediately.
A minimum of 50% of these infections could be avoided by better prevention and control measures such as strict hand hygiene.
Nosocomial infections are also very costly to the health system. On average they cost 180 millions dollars yearly.
By joining ADVIN you contribute to the promotion of safe care and quality hospitals.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Home
|
EXTRA NURSES IN HOSPITAL UNITS SAVE LIVES |
E-mail
|
|
Written by Christine Besson
|
|
Sunday, 20 April 2008 |
|
Recent studies in Europe and the USA clearly demonstrate that worker overload in the healthcare system always results in increased nosocomial infection rates, medical errors, and accidents. A new study by the Public Health School at the University of Minnesota (Medical Care – December 2007) proves that boosting the nurse to patient ratio in hospital units improves patient safety.
Adding one additional nurse to Intensive Care Units (ICU) for each group of 1000 hospitalized patients – one additional nurse for each patient / day – results in five lives saved and a 9% reduction in the death rate. Adding extra nurses reduces the death rate by 16% in surgical units and by 6% among patients in internal medicine. It also sharply reduces the number of nosocomial pneumonia cases. In ICU’s, cases of heart and respiratory failure fell sharply. Furthermore, the average hospital stay is shortened by 34% in ICU’s and 31% in surgical units.
The authors of the study emphasize that it is necessary to convince hospital administrators of the possibility and the benefits of implementing such measures in order to improve hospital management. |
|
