This article can be found at : Hospital Infection Problem Persists
This article is entitled, "Hospital Infection Problem Persists." This article was in the New York Times on April 14, 2010 and was written by Kevin Sack. This article was about the continued increase of infections in hospitals post-surgery. Over the last year blood infections have increased by 8% and urinary tract infections have increased by 4%. Many hospitals that are trying to actually decrease the problem are very successful. All it really takes is simple hand washing, disinfection of patients and sterile equipment. Dr. Clancy is quoted and said,
"Despite promising improvements in a few areas of health care, we are not achieving the more substantial strides that are needed to address persistent gaps in quality and access.”Basically some hospitals are improving, but it's not about just one hospital it's about all the hospitals. This article then goes on to say that with the new health care law hospitals that are having more deaths and sickness post-operative will receive less funding than the hospitals that are actually making a persistent effort to keep everything clean and healthy.
This article reminds me of how we learned aseptic technique in our labs and also about a doctor that made it mandatory for aseptic techniques in his hospital in our famous scientists/doctors project. I find it interesting that even after aseptic techniques have been taught and valued in hospitals that they aren't readily being used. When I first was reading the article I was thinking there must be some underlying cause or something about all these post-operative diseases and infections, but then I came to find out that these could be fixed if there was more hand washing and sterile equipment and just kept the patients cleaner. I think it's horrible that some hospitals still don't try their hardest to make their percentage of sickness and death go down after surgery, when it seems so easy. I don't know if they are lazy or something, but I believe that the person running the hospital should take value in keeping people healthy, since they are in a hospital where they are supposed to be getting better, not worse. I find this almost an oxymoron that people come in to have surgery to get better and then run the risk of actually getting sicker than they started out being. I really liked to hear that the health care law will reprimand the hospitals that don't make their percentage of post-operative illnesses go down. I think that they should just take some pride in their work and profession and keep the patients healthy, not sick.
I was very suprised by this article. I was not even aware that people were dying from bacterial infections after surgery still. I thought that deaths after surgery was something that ended a very a long time ago. The author of this article, Kevin Sack, said "hospital-acquired infections remains as resistant to cure as the germs that contribute to an estimated 100,000 deaths a year". 100,000 deaths a year is a lot. I think that it is crazy that nurses and doctors are not working harder to keep people from dying after surgery.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of giving less money to hospitals that have more deaths. This way those hospitals will work extra hard at making these cleans so that they can get more funding.
I agree with both Jack and Gracie, in that the fact that hospitals are not practicing as much cleanliness as possible is simply appalling. In my opinion, there is no excuse for lack of hygiene practices in a hospital, especially since patients are far more susceptible to bacterial and viral infection than other people. Hand washing is certainly crucial to stop spreading germs, as is coughing or sneezing into your arm. Many of the hygiene practices we learned in the H1N1 PSA’s should be practiced in hospitals. I think that in the 21st century, cleanliness in hospitals should not even have to be a concern. The medical field is so advanced, that sanitation practices should be at the highest quality possible in order to protect the patients.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Grace that this reminds me of our discussion of aseptic techniques while doing labs!
I was very surprised by this article as well. It's terrible that the place you are supposed to count on to make you better can actually make you worse. However, it is good to see that people are taking note of this and are monitoring the problem. This is an "urgent matter" that, in my opinion, requires a lot of attention. I feel it is the responsibility of every employee at every hospital to take the necessary safety precautions to ensure the good health of every patient. I did enjoy this article because it relates to Epidemics class. The first project I did for this class involved the spread and prevention of disease. I learned that simply washing your hands periodically throughout the day can make a huge difference to keep you healthy. A task this simple should not be so hard to follow through with.
ReplyDeleteI was also pretty surprised by this article. I thought it was interesting that people are still dying from bacterial infections as well. After doing a website on Joseph Lister for this class I learned about how surgery and antiseptics have come extremely far since people first started practicing surgery and I knew there is still a risk of infection, but I still thought it was interesting that infection is such a big concern in surgery.
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