Essay On HAI

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) affect over 1.7 million patients each year, causing almost 100,000 deaths annually in the United States alone (Johnson, 2010). According to the World Health Organization, HAIs are the most frequent adverse event in the healthcare industry. Fortunately, most of these infections can be prevented with one single intervention, proper hand hygiene (“The Evidence,” n.d.). Four out of five pathogens that cause illness are spread by direct contact. Proper hand hygiene eliminates these pathogens and helps to prevent cross-contamination and HAIs (Linton, 2015; “Hand Hygiene,” n.d.). Reduction of cross-contamination and HAIs improves patient outcomes, increases employee wellness, and lowers health care costs. Adherence to proper hand hygiene is the single most important safety measure in the health care setting. However, for many years compliance to proper hand hygiene in the healthcare industry has been dismally low. New and inventive measures must be implemented to increase compliance to proper hand hygiene and lower the rate of hospital-acquired infections.

In this task I will be describing how health and safety legislation, policies and procedures promotes the safety of individuals in a Hospital. Quality care is an important issue for both health care workers and their partners. Government continue to work on implementing staffing law that will upgrade the medical systems. Hospitals are required to provide security for patients and staff. Mechanical equipment, housekeeping, administrative and food staff play important roles in preventing all environmental hazards. Safety concerns surrounding these hazards include injury, illness, disease exposure, disaster

Keeping our hands clean is one of the most effcient and important steps we can do as humans to avoid getting sick or spreading germs to other people. Unwashed hands spread many diseases such as the flue, E. coli, and salmonella. Unfortunately, hand hygiene is still one of today’s most leading causes of infection in health care facilities. The risk of clinicians, patients, and visitors not complying with hand hygiene protocols creates a practice problem for nurses and their patient care. The cause of health care infections, also known as, health care-associated infections (HAIs) are increasing along with the rise of the inability to control or treat infections that are multi-drug resistant. Lack of proper hand hygiene is a major problem in clinical settings sourcing from critical care divisions where the most contaminations are prevalent. This paper will discuss how hand hygiene affects the nursing process and solutions of how to better prevent HAIs within the nursing scope of practice.

The standard precautions are implemented at all times to decrease the risk of transmitting infectious agents. Assuming that all patients could carry an infection, this minimises the potential spread of HAI’s. These standard precautions include routine hand hygiene, the use of personal protective equipment, safe handling and disposure of sharps and routine environmental cleaning.4,5 In this situation, where blood is present, this is considered a biohazard. Hand hygiene must be performed before touching the patient, before and after any procedures or exposure to bodily substances and after touching the patient or any of the patient’s surroundings. The use of Personal protective equipment should be used when attending to the patient. This includes protective eye wear, a surgical mask and an apron for protection from any splashes or sprays of blood generated by the patient. Gloves should also be worn for single use only when coming in contact with open skin and bodily fluids. To minimise the spread of blood, the bystander with visibly soiled hands should also be advised to thoroughly clean them with soap and

Elimination of HAI’s are a top priority for many healthcare related organizations and as such, the reduction of certain types of HAIs have been achieved. On the national level, the HAI Progress Report states that there has been, “Au 46 percent decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and a 19 percent decrease in select surgical site infections (SSIs) between 2008 and 2013” as well as “an 8 percent decrease in hospital-onset MRSA bacteremia and a 10 percent decrease in hospital-onset C. difficile infections between 2011 and 2013” (CDC, 2015).

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) will begin to display signs and symptoms within 48 hours. In order to treat the infections, physicians need to diagnostic tools quickly. The manufacturer of new diagnostic test makers, Kalorama Information stated last year that the world demand for testing and treatment of HAI will be over 10 billion dollars by the year 2015, increasing from 9 billion dollars in 2010. Kalorama also stated that HAI has a 5% infection rate of 40 million hospital visits a year, causing 100,000 deaths in the U.S. annually (Kalorama Information, July 14, 2011). Early diagnosis will improve the patient's outcome and decrease the chance of death. According to Kalorama, 20-30% of the HAI can be prevented by the simple use of better hand washing and cross contamination avoidance although the others need more intensive changes such as hospital ventilation systems and using more disposable supplies (Kalorama Information, p. 113) .

This study was intended to prove that hand hygiene practiced according to the CDC guidelines will decrease the incidence of hospital acquired infections. This could not really be proved in this study since the hospitals were not able to maintain improvement in hand hygiene. Health care workers were familiar with guidelines but significant practice changes were not maintained. Some of the infection rates did improve during this time but the correlation with hand hygiene is not consistent. There were other practice changes occurring during this same time and those changes may be responsible for the decreased infection rates.

Atul Gawande explains the single biggest problem facing hospitals in the spread of infection in his novel, Better. This is expressed in his conversation with the infection control team, where it is said that “their greatest difficulty is getting clinicians like me to do the one thing that consistently halts the spread of infection: wash our hands. (Gawande, 2007, 14)” He notes that diligence, one of his three core requirements for success in medicine, plays a huge role in enforcing a policy like handwashing. While everyone knows hand washing is important, especially in a hospital, letting health care professionals ignore the practice and make their own decisions about its criticality harms the whole population.

Patients have observed several physicians and nurses not washing their hands before interacting with patients. Hand hygiene is one of the largest tactics to combat nosocomial infections. The hospital should adopt a culture of 100% compliance with hand washing. The first step would be to increase handwashing stations and have more quick-dry alcohol-based antibacterial soap dispensers. Making access easier and decreasing the time taken to wash one’s hands would encourage adherence the policy. Furthermore, each floor should track hand washing and report data of potential nosocomial infections caused by improper handwashing. Keeping patients protected from bacteria is important especially when most are in an immunocompromised

Prevention strategies of nosocomial infections related to poor hand hygiene include revision of: orientation, training processes, competency assessments, equipment cleaning, handwashing procedures, switching to the use of single-use IV flush vials, adding strategically located waterless hand rubs, defining supervisory expectations, conducting in-services, team trainings, and tracking systems (Infection control related sentinel events, 2003). Potential solutions to noncompliance include: consistent skin protectant application, reduced time required for handwashing, and antiseptic stations at the bedside and room entry points (Boyce, 1999). Hospital administrators must create an organizational atmosphere in which adherence to recommended HH practices are considered an integral part of providing high-quality care (Boyce, 1999). Improvement in infection control

After the program, there is an increase in level of knowledge (79% to 91% to correctly identify hand washing guideline) about the hand washing issue and an increase in compliance rate (51% to 83%). The participants in the study have positive attitudes towards hand washing, before and after the program, suggesting that it is fine for a patient to remind his or her doctors to wash their hands. This study suggests an immediate rearrangement of the alcohol hand rub at each patient’s bedside, and a ongoing issue regarding caregivers’ skin irritation that has to be addressed quickly. Overall, the research shows that increasing hand washing compliance rate is a multifaceted problems that have to be addressed in multiple ways, from the position of the alcohol hand rub to the hand rub that do not irritate the healthcare workers’

As a hospital, quality care should be a priority for patients that are going to be treated for a sickness, or any type of procedure that is going to take place. A lot of times a patient gets an infection while they were at the hospital, on top of being treated for what they original came in for. Health facilities should be environments of healing, which they are, but they also have tons of various types of germs and infections, which grasp onto individuals that have weak immune systems/are sick. Some infections that are at hospitals are Tuberculosis, VRE, VAP, C-Diff, UTI, and MRSA. Preventive measures to stop the spread of the infections is lacking tremendously in the work and aim to provide safety for all patient’s health. The work

More than one million of Healthcare associated infections happen across healthcare settings every year, or 1 in 20 people admitted to any healthcare setting (Healthy people 2020, 2013). HAIs are the most common complication seen in hospitalized patients. HAIs increase morbidity, mortality, healthcare costs, and length of stay even after adjustment for the main underlying illness. According to the Center for Diseases Control (CDC, April 2013) 5 to 10% of patients admitted to acute-care hospitals, or long-term care facilities approximately 2 million patients per year in the United States acquire a nosocomial infection. At least 90,000 deaths per year are a result of HAIs, making it the fifth leading cause of death in acute-care hospitals. These

(Tortora, Funke, & Case, 2013, p. 414) Most hospitalized patients will be immune compromised to some extent and the hospital, by nature, is a pathogen rich environment. Ongoing efforts to minimize pathogens in the environment by all hospital employees, patients and visitors are crucial. Infection control nurses and/or committees should work continuously to identify and eradicate possible infection sources. Equipment, especially respirators and humidifiers must be kept scrupulously clean lest they become reservoirs for microbial growth. (Tortora, Funke, & Case, 2013, p. 417) Strategically placed signs warning visitors to avoid entering the hospital if they are unwell, strict compliance with standard precautions, private rooms and special ventilation systems for contagious patients are all essential in the effort to minimize contamination. Occasionally, airborne and droplet precautions are necessary, but most pathogens responsible for common HAIs are spread by direct or indirect contact. Chain of transmission is therefore the parameter over which nurses have particular influence, as nurses have the most direct, hands-on contact with

Controlling spread of infection is the key for the individual or the health care provider and washing hands is the first step. Hand washing is the most single most important strategy for preventing infection transmission. HAIs are the most common complication of hospital care. However, recent studies suggest that implementing existing prevention practices can lead to up to a 70 percent reduction in certain HAIs. The financial benefit of using these prevention practices is estimated to be $25.0 billion to $31.5 billion in medical cost savings (Healthypeople.gov 2020).