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Poor Personal Hygiene in Hospitals Spreading Superbugs
A recent survey shows that many hospital workers aren’t washing their hands properly, helping to spread the “superbugs” MRSA and C. difficile.
30-Second Summary
MRSA and C. difficile are bacterial infections often developed in hospitals. The infections are resistant to many antibiotics and thus have been dubbed “superbugs” by the media.
Many hospitals have implemented multimillion dollar programs to combat the spread of infection, and Scotland has begun building hospitals with only private rooms. However, their effectiveness is hampered by overworked hospital employees who fail to abide by even the simplest of health precautions.
A survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology found that many hospital employees do not properly wash their hands before dealing with patients. “They’ll know somebody is watching and they still won’t wash!” said one of the surveyed nurses.
Hand-washing problems are neither new nor restricted to the United States. A 2006 study in England found that 84 percent of doctors dealing with MRSA patients were not washing their hands properly.
Experts are calling for greater attention to basic hygiene principles. A Canadian regulatory body recently announced that it will require hospitals to monitor hand-washing.
According to one infection-control staffer, it will be a while before all workers accept such mandatory procedures. “You have a lot of hospitals where docs just don’t want to do it,” she said.
Many hospitals have implemented multimillion dollar programs to combat the spread of infection, and Scotland has begun building hospitals with only private rooms. However, their effectiveness is hampered by overworked hospital employees who fail to abide by even the simplest of health precautions.
A survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology found that many hospital employees do not properly wash their hands before dealing with patients. “They’ll know somebody is watching and they still won’t wash!” said one of the surveyed nurses.
Hand-washing problems are neither new nor restricted to the United States. A 2006 study in England found that 84 percent of doctors dealing with MRSA patients were not washing their hands properly.
Experts are calling for greater attention to basic hygiene principles. A Canadian regulatory body recently announced that it will require hospitals to monitor hand-washing.
According to one infection-control staffer, it will be a while before all workers accept such mandatory procedures. “You have a lot of hospitals where docs just don’t want to do it,” she said.
Headline Link: Hospital workers not washing properly
The APIC surveyed more than 2,000 hospital infection experts and asked them if their hospital was doing enough to prevent the spread of MRSA. Fifty-four percent said “no” and about three-quarters said that the hospital hadn’t done enough to educate workers about hygiene. APIC’s CEO Kathy Warye said that basic hygiene is the biggest area of concern. “It’s the areas where they have the greatest issues in compliance,” she said. “It needs to become a routine part of care instead of an interruption in care.”
Source: MSNBC
Background: Poor hygiene and the spread of superbugs
A 2006 study by the University of Hertfordshire found that 88 percent of British hospital workers do not wash every time they make contact with a patient. Even with MRSA infections spreading rapidly, 84 percent of workers in contact with MRSA patients did want to properly wash themselves. A separate study found that multi-million pound cleanliness programs to prevent the spread of MRSA had little to no effect because of poor basic hygiene.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Canada has been hit by an outbreak of C. difficile over the past year. Last month, Accreditation Canada, an independent health care accreditation body, announced that it will require Canadian hospitals to audit their hand-hygiene practices.
Source: Hamilton Spectator
Australian researchers have found that understaffing discourages proper personal hygiene habits because overworked doctors and nurses are often too busy to wash as frequently as they should. The full report is in the July issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases and available for purchase online.
Source: The Washington Post
In response to an increasing number of MRSA and C. difficile infections, Scotland has begun building hospitals with private rooms for every patient. However, some experts don’t believe the move will affect the spread of infection. Professor Allyson Pollock, head of the Centre for International Public Health Policy, said, “There is no strong research evidence that moving to single rooms is conducive to health and better outcomes or reducing the infection rate. Single rooms do not deal with hospital hygiene measures.”
Source: The Scotsman
Related Topics: Improving hospital hygiene
Experts at University College London Hospital have created a computer keyboard that is easier to clean and includes a warning light when it needs to be cleaned. A study had found that hospital keyboards were five times dirtier than a toilet seat and contained 150 times the recommended maximum of bacteria. The U.K.’s National Health Service is spending £1 million to install the keyboards in hospitals.
Source: The Daily Mail
Researchers in Toronto have developed an electronic system that is placed next to a patient’s bed and beeps whenever it detects hospital workers who have not washed their hands. Geoff Fernie of Toronto Rehab explained why workers might sometimes need a reminder to wash. “It’s not like washing your hands before lunch. It’s washing your hands 60 or 70 times an hour at busy times, one a minute, and throughout the shift, one every five minutes,” he said. “And with all the competing demands that people have on them—the patient calling for help here and the problem of trying to get around to everything and everyone—it’s not at all surprising that people find it difficult to remember to do it all the time.”
Source: Toronto Star
Inventor Gene Gordon has developed the “GloveGard,” designed to disinfect medical gloves. Doctors place their hands into the GloveGard, a box that shoots Ultraviolet C light to disinfect the glove in just a few seconds.
Source: The Daily Record
Reference: MRSA and C. difficile
The Mayo Clinic explains the causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of MRSA and C. difficile, including advice on how hospital workers can prevent spreading the infections.
Source: Mayo Clinic
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