HI Case Study

“Starting in 2009, Medicare, the US government 's health insurance program for elderly and disabled Americans, will not cover the costs of "preventable" conditions, mistakes and infections resulting from a hospital stay. So for instance, if you are on Medicare and you pick up a hospital acquired infection while you are being treated for something that is covered by Medicare, the extra cost of treating the hospital acquired infection will no longer be paid for by Medicare. Instead, the bill will be picked up by the hospital itself since the rules don 't allow the hospital to charge it to you” (Paddock, 2007).

Implementation of patient care practices for infection control is the role of the nursing staff. Nurses are responsible for maintaining hygiene, consistent with hospital policies and good nursing practice on the ward and monitoring aseptic techniques, including hand-washing and use of isolation. It is also in their scope of practice to promptly report to the attending physician any evidence of infection in patients under the nurse’s care and initiating patient isolation and ordering culture specimens from any patient showing signs of a communicable disease, when the physician is not immediately available. Limiting patient exposure to infections from visitors, hospital staff, other patients, or equipment used for diagnosis or treatment and maintaining

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

Medicare is trying to create incentives for hospitals to keep from making patients sicker, instead of healthier, during their inpatient stay. Hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) can lead to poor patient results

Implementation of The Affordable Care Act has addressed some issues surrounding HAIs. For instance, section 3008 of ACA recognized the HAC or hospital acquired condition in the Reduction Program to further reduce HACs and improve patient quality. In this program, the ACA seeks to establish a monetary incentive through CMS that will encourage hospitals to reduce HAC or HAIs. Since most not for profit, public, and even large hospitals receive some form of funding through CMS from Medicare or Medicaid payments, this monetary incentive is one of the better incentives to have been recently proposed by the ACA regarding HAIs. Therefore, some of the strategies in managing and developing evidence-based practice relevant in handling

These statistics are a great accomplishment in the reduction of HAI’s but the sheer number of patients still acquiring HAI’s through various sites of infection is still astronomical. The HAI prevalence survey put out by the CDC states that in the year 2011, the estimated number of patients with HAI 's from acute care hospitals was 722,000 and about 75,000 died from their HAI’s (CDC, 2015). The state of California is facing a significant

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) .

Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) affect 1.7 million Americans each year with as many as 98,000 dying annually as a result of hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) (Kavanagh, 2007). In 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented policy to include non-payment for HAC in order to improve quality patient care and contain costs. This non-payment disincentive refuses to pay for complications of care that are considered preventable. Two other paradigms of this policy used to promote quality include pay-for-performance initiatives and public disclosure of HAC.

The HAI legislation is implemented by State laws. The Bill was introduced to the House of Representatives in November 11 2007, and then was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. At last the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Health. The legislation is also implemented by enforcing itself through awareness. There are currently 32 states that are requiring facilities, by law, to report HAI data to National Healthcare Safety Network. Overall the CDC is in charge with implementing the HAI prevention and reporting guidelines. According to the article “Healthcare-associated Infections” The CDC, in collaboration with other organizations, has developed guidelines for the prevention of CLABSI and other types of healthcare-associated

This paragraph explains ways to prevent infections contracted from hospitals. The number one way to lower the spread of infections contracted through a hospital is correct sanitation customs. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal government agency has come up with guidelines in order to safeguard against the expansion of infections and diseases for patients and the workers (Hedman, 2010). It is mandatory for administrators of hospitals to write a disclosure policy to protect the workers from infections like Hepatitis B and other infections and bad bacteria. Minimizing infections that the workers have can aid in stopping the spread of

The priority nursing diagnosis of hospital acquired infection is risk for any kind of infection. One of the main goals for each patient in the hospital is the patient will remain free of infection as evidence by absence of heat, pain, redness, or swelling in any area of the patient’s body during each nurse’s shift. (care plan book). Frequently hand washing is the best intervention for preventing infection. Hand washing reduces the risk of transmission of pathogens by inhibiting the growth of or killing the microorganisms. (cb)Proper sterile technique during urinary

Question #1: Evaluate the conduct of Peter Lewiston against the EEOC’s definition of sexual harassment.

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).

Healthcare associated infections have an impact on patients - how? Can be prevented greatly with compliance to hand hygiene protocols (REF).