NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION
A hospital-acquired infection (HAI), also called nosocomial infection in medical literature, is an infection whose growth is favored by a hospital environment. It may be acquired by a patient while visiting hospital or it may spread among hospital staff. Nosocomial infections include fungal and bacterial infections and are triggered by the decrease in resistance of a person.
TYPES
Modern healthcare employs many types of invasive contrivances and procedures to treat infected persons and to avail them recuperate. Infections can be associated with the contrivances utilized in medical procedures, such as catheters or ventilators.
Infections may withal occur at surgery sites, CDC works to monitor and avert these infections because they are a paramount threat to patient safety.
The main types of nosocomial infections are:
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia
• Surgical site infection
• Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections
• Central Line-associated Bloodstream Infection
CAUSE
Nosocomial infections are commonly transmitted when hospital staff becomes casual and individuals associated with the hospital practices do not coduct correct hygiene on regular basis. The use of outpatient treatment is on the increase and continuously increased during the past decade. A greater number of people are hospitalized today and are more likely to be seriously ill, speacially those with more weakened immune systems, than in the past. Moreover, some medical procedures bypass the body's natural protective barriers. Since medical staff treats many patients on daily basis, the staff themselves serve as a source of spread of pathogens. Therefore, the staff act as vectors to HAI.
TRANSMISSION
The drug-resistant Gram-negative bac...
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...en 4,500 and 7,000 deaths. A survey in Lombardy gave a rate of 4.9% of patients in 2000.
United Kingdom
Estimate show a 10% infection rate, with 8.2% estimated in 2006.
Switzerland
Calculations range between 2 and 14%. A national survey gave a rate of 7.2% in 2004.
Finland
The rate was estimated at about 8.5% of patients in 2005.
Belgium
In Belgium the outbreak of HAI’s is about 6.2%. Round about 125 500 patients become infected by a nosocomial infection each year, resulting in 3000 deaths. The extra costs for the health indemnification are estimated to be approximately €400 million per year.
CONCLUSION
Through an effective analysis of nonsocomial infections we are able to recognize the agents that commonly become the cause. The study of these agents helps us to formulate the methods to prevet them. The recent updates are also an important source of avoiding HAI’s.
Vegas AA, Jodra VM, García ML (1993) Nosocomial infection in surgery wards: a controlled study of increased duration of hospital stays and directs cost of hospitalization. Eur J Epidemiol. 9:504–510.
In this day and age, the general population assumes that when someone is hospitalized the risk for getting a new infection while in the hospital is minimal. However, in the United States the risk for gaining a hospital-associated infection has become a serious concern and a costly one at that. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that hospital-associated infections have cost an estimate of 35.7 to 45 billion dollars to United States hospital when 20% of these infections could have been preventable with the correct interventions. One of the most common hospital-associated infections has become hospital-acquired pneumonia. (Scott II, 2009) This type of pneumonia is easily preventable if healthcare workers would comply with a few simple interventions that should already be in place in their facility. While these interventions have been proven effective, full compliance is still lacking and in the end it is being left to up the health care staff to become aware of the results.
The way in which this problem was able to occur is that because now we have things like hospitals, or other sorts of locations used to aid the public we have now created the opportunity for many people with different illnesses to all accompany each other. This in turn has created a breading ground for bacteria. Thus the more compact the area, like the ER, the more likely to catch some form of illness. Since M.R.S.A. has become too prevalent in the world the likely-hood of people contracting the disease is much higher. Also since it doesn’t require a host for survival, touching contaminated surfaces can transmit it. There have even been instances where hospital staffs accidently were carrying the disease around the hospital on their uniforms. In a study done by Russel Olmsted, 60% of doctors and 65% of nurses were found caring M.R.S.A. on their uniforms. This leads to the risk that every patient they helped or were near during the time they were contaminated are now at risk for the disease (MNT, 2011).
Direct legal issues that result in inadequate infection-control practices, medical costs of healthcare-associated infections and the amount of deaths that have occurred due to these preventable infections are the main targeted issues that will focus on this project. Reporting requirements of HAIs vary from state to state, provider, facility, frequency, and type of infection. Due to this, there is inconsistency in the methods of data collected, risk management, data validation, and the requirement or reporting HAIs. The legal requirements and statutes that mandate disclosure of errors need to be addressed in order to reduce and prevent HAIs. In addition, the discussion of legal duties and responsibilities of the care providers, facilities and patients are discussed.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are preventable and pose a threat to hospitals and patients; increasing the cost, nominally and physically, for both. Pneumonia makes up approximately 15% of all HAI and is the leading cause of nosocomial deaths. Pneumonia is most frequently caused by bacterial microorganisms reaching the lungs by way of aspiration, inhalation or the hematogenous spread of a primary infection. There are two categories of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (HAP); Health-Care Associated Pneumonia (HCAP) and Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
This literature review will analyze and critically explore four studies that have been conducted on hand hygiene compliance rates by Healthcare workers (HCWs). Firstly, it will look at compliance rates for HCWs in the intensive care units (ICU) and then explore the different factors that contribute to low hand hygiene compliance. Hospital Acquired infections (HAI) or Nosocomial Infections appear worldwide, affecting both developed and poor countries. HAIs represent a major source of morbidity and mortality, especially for patients in the ICU (Hugonnet, Perneger, & Pittet, 2002). Hand hygiene can be defined as any method that destroys or removes microorganisms on hands (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). According to the World Health Organization (2002), a HAI can be defined as an infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other health care facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. The hands of HCWs transmit majority of the endemic infections. As
In health care facilities many sick patients are treated in isolated or confined spaces. This means that many microorganisms are present in these areas. Patients come in contact with many health care workers (HCW) who can potentially help the spread of these microorganisms and infections between their patients.
Hospital acquired infections are one of the most common complications of care in the hospital setting. Hospital acquired infections are infections that patients acquired during the stay in the hospital. These infections can cause an increase number of days the patients stay in the hospital. Hospital acquired infections makes the patients worse or even causes death. “In the USA alone, hospital acquired infections cause about 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths per year”(secondary).
Healthcare-associated infections can occur in any type of healthcare facility. It usually begins from cross contamination from healthcare providers to the patient, however, it can come from other patients, hazardous medical procedures, and contaminated surgical tools too. Healthcare workers play the leading role in preventing healthcare-associated infections. Srigley et al. (2013) stated that “Healthcare worker (HCW) hand hygiene is considered to be one of the most important interventions for the prevention of HAIs and AROs. However HCW hand hygiene is typically poor, with a median compliance of 40%, and few interventions have been demonstrated to result in significant and sustained improvement” In order to
Healthcare-associated infections are a big issue in hospitals. They are the highest cause of morbidity and mortality rates in hospitalized patients. Due to increasing prevention methods, there has been a decrease in infections, but there is still a way to go. In detail, common infections are central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter care urinary tract infections, surgical site infections and transmission of Clostridium difficile.
The mission of Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC) is to provide quality cost effective healthcare. In order to accomplish this mission HealthCare Associated Infections (HAI) must be reduced. Ventura County Medical Center along with hospitals around the nation is required to report their HAI’s to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) which in turn reports to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which then reports to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The CDC states that 1 in 25 patients will get a HAI during their stay in the acute care setting of a hospital. “There were an estimated 722,000 Hospital Associated Infections in acute care hospitals in the US in 2011.” (CDC, 2015). Nine percent of patients
(2014) shed light on two key components for infection control, which includes protecting patients from acquiring infections and protecting health care workers from becoming infected (Curchoe et al., 2014). The techniques that are used to protect patients also provide protection for nurses and other health care workers alike. In order to prevent the spread of infections, it is important for health care workers to be meticulous and attentive when providing care to already vulnerable patients (Curchoe et al., 2014). If a health care worker is aware they may contaminate the surroundings of a patient, they must properly clean, disinfect, and sterilize any contaminated objects in order to reduce or eliminate microorganisms (Curchoe et al., 2014). It is also ideal to change gloves after contact with contaminated secretions and before leaving a patient’s room (Curchoe, 2014). Research suggests that due to standard precaution, gloves must be worn as a single-use item for each invasive procedure, contact with sterile sites, and non-intact skin or mucous membranes (Curchoe et al., 2014). Hence, it is critical that health care workers change gloves during any activity that has been assessed as carrying a risk of exposure to body substances, secretions, excretions, and blood (Curchoe et al.,
Patients seek health care services to get relieve or complete resolution of their health problems. Unfortunately, some end up with hospital acquired infection (HAI). HAI have a negative effect on the patient, the payer and the institution. This paper discuss the author’s interview with a health care provider on challenges encountered in addressing infection prevention, risk management strategies used in the organization’s infection control program , risk monitoring and maintenance and his view on infection prevention. HAI are preventable and individual health care provider, their institution, the patient and any other player involved must perform their role in infection control to reverse the current trend.
Infection control is very important in the health care profession. Health care professionals, who do not practice proper infection control, allow themselves to become susceptible to a number of infections. Among the most dreaded of these infections are: hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Another infection which has more recently increased in prevalence is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are all treated differently. Each infection has its own symptoms, classifications, and incubation periods. These infections are transmitted in very similar fashions, but they do not all target the same population.
Avoiding infection or, at least, breaking the chain of transmission is vital in any setting, but more so in healthcare environments where infections and vulnerable hosts are moving under the same roof. What needs to be done, then?