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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.
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NATIONAL PROGRAM SAVING LIVES IN MERCED HOSPITAL- CALIFORNIA |
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Written by Christine Besson
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Wednesday, 16 August 2006 |
 Changes in hospital care procedure getting positive results
Getting a hospital-acquired infection, or being given the wrong medication by staff that are overworked, or, worst of all, death, are patients’ nightmares.
But hospitals have made changes in the past few years to help decrease the infection rate and stop these mistakes, and one nationwide program has seen big results from small changes.
Mercy Medical Center Merced is one of more than 3,000 hospitals taking part in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's "100,000 Lives Campaign." – Dr Lynn Cooman, vice president of medical affairs for Mercy, said that the hospital participated in a program to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia that was very successful. They went from one to two cases a month to zero in the last 16 months!
"The average community hospital our size would have at least two cases a month." Said Dr Cooman.
Although Mercy is only reporting on the pneumonia statistics, the campaign has a total of six different areas that hospitals can implement changes.
For instance,using clippers instead of razors before a surgery decreases the risk of surgical site infection.
Each patient now gets a list of all his medication that follows him throughout the hospital. It helps avoiding medication errors.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is seeking to prevent other health problems such as intravenous line catheter infections, surgical site infections, medication errors.
The institute had done some campaigns in the past on a very small scale, Hackbarth said, but this is the biggest one, and the one that has made the most difference to patients' lives
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