Unsafe Injection Practices In Health Care Essay

Healthcare associated infections are ranked as one of the top five causes of death in the United States (1). This is a very serious problem being that so many people go to hospitals to maybe have a surgery and get better and in return get a very serious infection that has been known to take limbs and even lives. There are many different hospital acquired or nosocomial infections, but the one that I am referring to is especially dangerous. The name of this infection is called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or more commonly known as MRSA.

Through medical advances in technology and practice, nurses have been afforded the opportunity to provide lifesaving care to patients. However, this lifesaving care comes with the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Generally speaking, HAIs are infections directly related with the delivery of healthcare and are often caused by viral, bacterial or

According to Health Grades, 2009, total Direct cost of unsafe infection practice to Unit-ed State is $535 million while cost to patient safety events is 6.8 billion to federal Medicare pro-gram and also leads to 92,882 preventable deaths in USA. Top 250 hospitals of US have achieved patient safety excellence award, which has a potential to save 2 billion of federal money and 22,771 deaths from Medicare patients (Health Grades, 2009). Institute of medicine (IOM) has estimated that adverse drug reactions cost 1.5 million to the govt.which can be reduced with proper interventions (Classen, Jaser & Budnitz, 2010). Total cost due to medical errors is 29 bil-lion annually, which includes costs due to medical bills and due to loss of income and other dis-abilities. Seeing the severity of patient safety events, it is necessary for the hospitals to take proper steps towards patient safety. Each step towards patient safety saves hundreds of lives and thousands of dollars. Preventable medical errors affect the trust of patient on health care person-nel (Health Grade, 2009).

Infection on the individual can be a risk to residents, Increase time in recovery, increase length of stay, loss of earnings and cause potential death.

Healthcare acquired infections (HAI) not only contribute to exorbitant amounts of financial burden on the healthcare system but also attribute to staggering numbers of

Burke J.P. (2003). Infection control- a problem for patient safety. New England Journal Medicine, 348(7):651-656.

Healthcare is an ever-growing, booming industry and as medical technology advances so should our standards of care. Once known as hospital acquired “nosocomial” infections, Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are still afflicting the very patients we are to be treating. These patients could be our loved ones, friends, and family so to say that, “1 in 25 hospital patients have at least one HAI in a U.S. acute care hospital” (CDC, 2015), is still one too many.

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) .

Interlandi works with many hospitals and labs to get answers in order to not only expand her career but also inform the public of situations that need to be brought to their attention. Jeneen Interlandi’s position on this is valid because there are situations that can cause death/are life threatening but since the public isn’t informed they aren’t worried and feel secure when in fact they should be notified and worried. In Jeneen Interlandi’s article of “A Frightening New Risk In Heart Surgery” (2016) Interlandi informs the reader that people who are undergoing heart surgery aren’t being informed that recently there has been an outbreak of bacteria that has already caused many to become ill and potentially pass away. Interlandi also explains that the hospitals in which these outbreaks have occurred also have failed to notify the patients undergoing this procedure. In Interlandi’s article, “A Frightening New Risk In Heart Surgery” (2016), page 6, Interlandi states a source Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumer Report’s, “...hospitals aren’t taking enough responsibility.” “Without that notice, patients don’t know what symptoms to watch out for and can’t be promptly treated with

infections. There are many reasons for their vulnerability including frailty, pre-existing conditions, and weakened immune systems. They may not be able to fully communicate with healthcare workers to report changes in health or may be too embarrassed by their decline in health to report the changes. Because of this, it is very important for residential care workers to ensure that infection control and prevention measures are implemented. Infections can cause many unwanted side effects in patients such as pain, discomfort, disorientation, and even in severe cases death. Not all infections can be passed from person to person. However, in residential care settings, many infections that can be passed from person to

However, every NSIs carries the risk of getting a life-threatening bloodborne infection such as hepatitis B or C, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Furthermore, the impact can cause emotional turmoil and stress, even though a serious disease is not transmitted, leaving the healthcare practitioner suffering anguish as they wait to determine their health state after injury. According to Wilburn and Eijkemans (2004), NSIs persist to be a severe hazard exposing healthcare providers to lethal bloodborne pathogens. This is in spite of the important advancement in practice, policy, as well as products. About two decades ago, progress has incorporated the execution of general precautions, and has concluded with realisation of needleless as well as safer needle tools (Wilburn & Eijkemans,

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).

Overall, I felt that Evelyn McKnight effectively communicated the devastation of her personal experience with unsafe injections in a healthcare setting considering she only had thirty seconds to accomplish this feat. The campaign’s decision to use radio as a channel for this PSA was a cost-effective option with the potential to reach a large audience. Campaign organizers may wish to consider the time of day this PSA is aired and designate peak commute times where the targeted population may be more likely to hear this campaign message on the radio.

Infection control within a healthcare facility is the prevention of the spread of many microorganisms from patient to patient, patient to a member of staff and also from the staff member to the patient that are in there care. The World Health Organisation have defined healthcare associated infections as an infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other healthcare facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. Every healthcare facility from hospitals to general practitioners office should have a designated member of staff or a team of people who ensure that the infection control procedures are abided by and adhered to at all times in order to protect both staff and patients. More than 300,000 people each year are affected by a healthcare associated infection and the cost of treatment for these patients is over £3,000 and there is also the cost of treatment after discharge.

We Know in this Modern World everyone one is finding a way to get relief from their stress. Their many ways to cope with it, however that include good ways and bad ways. Good ways Would basically include going on a vacation or spending time with their family and bad ways would include taking synthetic drugs that ultimately would start the destruction of their lives. There are also many harmful ways people take drugs which might even put a scar on their lives forever or even give them some chronic diseases that would take their life. One of that phenomenon is exchanging needles or using the same needle over and over again while doing drugs. In order to prevent chronic diseases like HIV and AIDS, in some countries their government has started a program called a needle exchange where drug users get the new and clean needles for their drug use. Basically, Needle and syringe programs (NSPs) are a type of harm diminution imagination that provides clean needles and syringes to people who have an addiction to inject drugs (referred to as PWID) to reduce the chances of getting the diseases of HIV and other harmful blood-borne viruses (hepatitis B and C). This Needle Exchange program has helped and identified many drug users from chronic diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggest the distribution of 200 sterile needles and syringes per drug injector per year, in order to tellingly tackle HIV transmission via this route. There are many arguments for and against the needle