Читать книгу The Coming Healthcare Revolution: Take Control of Your Health - Sheldon Cohen M.D. - Страница 13

There are estimated 1.7 million infections in United States hospitals per year resulting in 99,000 deaths. These infections are urinary tract (32%), surgical site infections (22%), pneumonia (15%), and bloodstream (14%). There have been twenty-eight different organisms acquired in hospitals.

Hospital acquired infections, also known as nosocomial infections occur in five percent of all hospitalized patients. There are many reasons for this scary statistic:

Many hospitalized patients have weakened immune systems making them more susceptible to infections

•They may have a weakened immune system because they have an illness causing this increased susceptibility, or they are receiving treatment that weakens their immune system. The end-result is decreased resistance to bacterial, viral, or fungal infections

•Medical procedures can introduce infectious agents into a patient

•Patients admitted with infectious diseases may transfer the infection to other patients

•Hospital workers and visitors are also susceptible to infections acquired from patients

•The same principles apply to all healthcare organizations including nursing homes, clinics, dental and other healthcare offices, child care centers, homes, restaurants, and schools

Healthcare workers can carry antibiotic resistant bacteria, viruses and fungi on their hands. Proper hand hygiene will reduce the incidence near 100 percent. Washing with soap and water can be effective if done well, but it is time consuming. Done with every patient interaction, it can result in significant dryness and irritation to the hands. Therefore, hospitals have introduced an alcohol rub hand washing system that can kill bacteria in fifteen seconds, can reduce bacteria count 10,000 fold and is gentle on the hands. If hospital personnel do not wash their hands before examination, the patient must insist they do. All physicians should place a sign in their examining rooms—“Don’t be afraid to ask if I’ve washed my hands.”

The overuse of antibiotics has resulted in bacterial resistance to common antibiotics. This may result in failure of treatment for an infectious disease. A more rational use of antibiotics based upon treatment guidelines followed by physicians and accepted by patients will reverse this trend.