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Infections in the hospital setting
Assignment on health care associated infections
Assignment on health care associated infections
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Recommended: Infections in the hospital setting
Sometimes people get infections when they are staying in the hospitals to receive treatment for their health problems. These infections known as health-care associated infections (HAIs) or nosocomial infections. HAIs are acquired in any place where the health care is provided which include acute care hospitals, nonhospital settings such as renal dialysis facilities, mobile surgical centers, and long-term care facilities like nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. HAIs may be caused by any infectious microbes, including fungi, viruses, bacteria, and other less common types of pathogens. These infections are associated with many risk factors that include the use of indwelling medical devices (urinary catheters, bloodstream, and endotracheal
According to an article by Timsit, J., et al. an estimated 5 million central venous catheters are inserted in patients each year. CBIs, most of which are associated with central venous catheters, account for more than 11% of all health-care associated infections. Additionally, more than 250,000 central-line associated blood stream infections also occur annually, with an estimated mortality rate of 12-25%. For patients within the intensive care unit, the numbers were even higher. Each episode significantly increases the patient’s hospital stay, as well as increasing costs from $4,000 to $56,000 per episode.
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).
Baptist Memorial Hospital is in a highly competitive healthcare environment. This capitation is not only the result of efforts of the other healthcare organizations but, also driven by patient consumerism. The government sponsored hospital compare website allows potential patients the ability to compare our clinical outcome data. The targeted group is also the group with the greatest healthcare choice, our medicare population. One of the major reporting categories is Hospital acquired condition, the most significant of these is hospital aired infections. The significance of the website data is:
Medicalization can either be a positive or a negative thing in society often some suffering from an illness turn to the label of medicalization to be able to be accepted from society. Medicalization can be positive for a society if it’s done for all the right reasons rather than just personal interest for those behind it.
The nail is a complex cutaneous structure that consists mainly of the nail matrix, nail plate, nail bed, cuticle (eponychium), and nail folds. The cuticle is an outgrowth of the proximal fold, which is situated between the skin of the digit and the nail plate, providing a waterproof seal from external irritants and pathogens.
The topic that I chose is interventions used to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). This type of infection is acquired from the use of a urinary catheter while in the hospital. According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, urinary tract infections are responsible for 40 percent of all hospital-acquired infections annually, with 80% of these hospital-acquired infections caused by use of indwelling urinary catheters. When any type of tubes or catheters are introduced into the body, it serves as a medium for infection. Urinary catheters are used during surgery to prevent injury to the bladder.
Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs) has become to be classified as one among the leading infections which most individuals end up being susceptible to acquire while at the hospital. Healthcare-associated or acquired infections (HAIs) are a significant cause of illness, death, and more often than not, have resulted to cost the tax payers potentially high medical expenses in most health care settings. ("Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality," para. 1) Due to this, 1 out of every 20 patients will end up with CAUTI within the US hospitals and this has caused Agency for healthcare research and quality (AHRQ) to embark on nationwide plans to help in the eradication and control of CAUTI incidences. ("Agency
Healthcare-associates Infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire during the course of receiving healthcare treatment for other conditions and can be devastating or even deadly ("CDC - HAIs the Burden - HAI", 2013). An HAI was defined as a localized or systemic condition that (1) results from an adverse reaction to the pres¬ence of an infectious agent(s) or its toxin(s), (2) that occurs during a hospital admission, (3) for which there is no evidence the infection was present or incubating at admission, and (4) meets body site-specific criteria (Klevens et al., 2007, p.2).
Health care fraud is the most important area to be analyzed as it put a great impact over US health care system. The reason behind the increasing cost is healthcare fraud. Increasing cost can be considered as the most visible factor in this term. US health care system is continuously using money over the health care system in order to make it better and protect patient from getting ill. Therefore, they have faced millions of challenges and for that they have spent more than 2.27 trillion dollars over the health care and 4 billion over health insurance. But these insurance claims turned about fraudulent (The Challenge of Health Care Fraud, 2014).
wards. Clinical Microbiology And Infection: The Official Publication Of The European Society Of Clinical Microbiology And Infectious Diseases, 18(12), 1215-1217. doi:10.1111/j.1469-0691.2011.03735.x
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).
...s and measurement to decrease healthcare- associated infections. American Journal Of Infection Control, pp. S19-S25. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2012.02.008.
Community-acquired bladder infections. These infections occur when people who aren’t in a medical care facility develop a bladder infection.
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.
...98,000 Americans die from these each year (Braunstein, 2012). With the treatment of holistic health care, the incidence rate of HAIs in hospitals can be decreased as well.