Although people may think that hospitals are the safest, cleanest place to be when your sick, those people are wrong. Hospitals are "breeding grounds" for infections. You can get an infection from any of the equipment, supplies, and other sicknesses that are traveling through the hospital. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is the most common infection to travel around a hospital. It is resistant to all antibiotics, and you can receive it from dirty equipment. It is an infection in your skin and can be very dangerous. It is spread by contact, and can also be called a staph infection. This is the most common disease that spreads, but how is it controlled?
There are many precautions when it comes to controlling the spread of MRSA. Six standard precautions hospitals have to follow are hand washing, gloving, mouth, nose, eye protection, gowning, important device handling of patient care equipment, and appropriate handle of laundry. The same procedures, and then some, go for contact precautions as well. It seems as if the reoccurring theme is to protect anything used in the hospital that could potentially spread this disease. This is difficult because staff, nurses, and doctors need to make sure they do not skip the step of putting on gloves or wiping down a machine after it is used. If something were to go wrong, there would be a huge liability on their hands.
Therefore, be cautious when your in the hospital, and make sure you are receiving sterilized supplies and any one who is working on you has gloves on! You can never be to careful.
https://www.sharecare.com/health/infectious-disease/what-kinds-infections-get-hospital
https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/
Indeed, in fact there is a large amount of data that suggests for those that are immune-deficient that the hospital is the most dangerous place they can be!
ReplyDeleteThe laboratory I work at is the leader of the US's effort to survey and combat anti-microbial resistance. One of our scientists was recently in the news when he discovered the first sign of MRC-1 resistant bacteria in the US.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-these-biomedical-detectives-identified-the-dreaded-new-superbug-in-us/2016/06/06/96ac8922-2bda-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html?utm_term=.78a496eaac1b
Nice post - hospitals are sick places. Home health has a lot going for it.
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