THE SILENT KILLER IN HOSPITALS
Dolcumentary Film Series on Hospital Acquired Infections
NOSOCOMIAL infectlions
• You go to the hospital to get better, but a
investigation
found that more than 100,000 deaths in the year 2000 were linked to infections
that patients received
hospitals".
• Infections often occur when hospital workers fail to wash their
hands in between each procedure.
• The number of people needlessly killed is unbelievable, but the
public doesn't know anything about it".
• Hospitals can be a hotbed of cross contamination opportunities.
• Drug-resistant germs adapt, thrive beyond hospital walls.
• In a special investigation,
in 2000 nearly three-quarters
of these deadly infections- or about 75,000 - were preventable. Strict
adherence to clean-hand policies alone could save 20,000 lives
..
•
. deaths linked to hospital infections represent the fourth
leading cause of mortality among Americans, behind heart disease, cancer
and strokes. These infections kill more people each year than car accidents,
fires and drowning combined
..
• Dirty hospitals kill 75,000 patients a year. Unnecessarily.
• Operating rooms furniture can make or break a sterile field.
|
 A
hospital is a place for treatment of infections of various kinds ; to
restore the sick and injured to health in the shortest possible time so
as to ensure that they return to normal life routine. However, since the
very nature of their functions of accepting al kinds of infections by
patients, hospitals, by themselves, become a source of infection. This
phenomena of nosocomial (hospital - acquired) Infection is worldwide and
almost impossible to eradicate.
|
 In
this context, it is imperative for the hospital management to ensure proper
efforts on a warfooting so that the probability of cross infections was
kept to the barest minimum. Perhaps the most important, but invariably,
the most neglected area of Infection control is disposal of Hospital waste.
The persisting problem of waste disposal calls for a firm policy. It is
heartening to note that the authorities in India are paying greater attention
to this problem of late. Hospital workers are potential hazards and could
transmit numerous diseases in the community and put those who handle waste
or live in its proximity at risk.
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Besides, the increasing number of disposables
in health care system is also posing additional burden as waste management
facilities. The most practical approach to the management of biomedical
waste is to identify and segregate infectious waste for which some special
precautions are needed to follow.
Right from the discovery of germ theory by Louis Pasteur and subsequent
work done to kill germs on surgical equipment, the significance of the
need for proper cleaning, disinfection and sterilization is understood
well by the medical fraternity. |
 While
advanced countries have studied on infection control as a science and
have progressed rapidly with newer methods of sterilization and disinfection.
India is still pursuing obsolete technology, equipment and lagged behind
in the absence of a perfect infection control protocol. Besides, there
is a dearth of qualified personnel to conduct this critical job. Most
often, most illiterate person handles this key department and the doctors
have also accepted this practice unmindful of the lurking danger. In a
way the process is done more as a ritual than a science.
Hospital acquired infections can be caused by various factors which among
others include personal hygiene of hospital workers and doctors.
Studies have revealed that the hospital staff including doctors and nurses
shockingly lax about keeping their hands clean. In a nutshell, hospitals
have become more potential area for breeding infections. An interesting
study reveals that the lives of tens of thousands of people could have
been saved if doctors and nurses wash their hands properly.
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|
 Hospital
acquired infections are becoming a real persistent danger for pregnant
women too. According to a study as many as 4000 women each year acquire
infections as a result of having a caesarian. In the US, a recent study
reveals, that between five and 10 per cent of all the US hospital patients
become infected with new diseases while in hospital. Hospital acquired
infections are killing 90,000 patients and sickened over 2 million every
year.
HAI is the forth biggest cause of death in the US, next only to heart
disease, stroke and cancer.
|
 Infants,
who have yet to develop immunity to infections, very old people, diabetes,
leukemia patients, patients who have had their spleen removed (spleen
is a major immune system) and AIDS patients are most vulnerable than other
category of people to catch hospital acquired infections. Urinary tack
infection and pneumonia account for almost 60% of infections. Surgical
wounds accounted for another 20 per cent.
Orthopaedic infections could be devastating and could become chronic without
prompt treatment leading to infections of bones and joints.
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In most of the hospitals in
India, the sterilization department is not identified as a separate unit
but an extension of OT. The surgeon is not bothered about the sterility
of the equipment at his Mayo (surgery) table and believes that everything
is alright. There is no sterile storage and sterile handling. Ironically,
even with the latest technical know-how and equipment the developed countries
still find about one to two per cent post operative infections, whereas
in India it is claimed to be nil !.
But, according to studies the percentage varied from 10 to 25. |
 |
| (Compiled from various sources)
Some of the key points on silent killer in hospitals
A hospital is a place for treatment of infections of
various kinds; to restore the sick and inured to health in the shortest
possible time so as to return them to their earlier life routine. However,
since the very nature of their functions of accepting all kinds of infected
patients, hospitals themselves become a source of infection. This phenomena
of nosocomial infection is a worldwide one, which is almost impossible
to eradicate. All the same, it is imperative that the probability of cross
infection is kept to the bare minimum; secondly that, all efforts are
made on a war footing to control, if such an infection should start to
spread amongst patients. This is where the role of the hospital management
comes in. |
 The
most important administrative function for control of HAI is monitoring
constant vigilance and to take immediate corrective measures. What is
required is to ensure that recommended methods are being followed everywhere.
In one hospital, it was noted that the corridor being used to convey operated
patients from OT to ICUs was being swept by broom instead of wet mopping.
In another, that the new lot of Resident doctors did not resort to hand
washing before touching each patient in critical care areas.
|
 In
a third place, 10% of OT staff were found to be positive for staphylococcus
aureus in nasal swabs during monsoon. Fortunately, the majority turned
out to e Methicillin Sensitive (MSS). Prompt treatment of 'healthy' staff
averted passing it on to patients. In another case, delay in instituting
counter-measures resulted in spread of infection amongst other patients
of the world.
|
 The
decision to close a facility is a difficult one. Not only does it inconvenience
the patients waiting for operation or admission to ICU, but the consultants
are unhappy a the resultant 'drop in figures'. Hence the pros and cons
of the decision have to be weighed carefully, keeping in mind uppermost
the question of prevention of spread of infection. Such closure also means
adverse publicity and affects the confidence level of the clients in the
particular hospital, which takes a long time to rebuild.
|
 INFECTION
CONTROL IN INDIAN HOSPITALS DISINFECION, DE-CONTAMINATION & STERILIZATION
OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
Right from the discovery of germ theory by Louis Pasteur and subsequent
work done by his disciples like Charles Chamberland, who designed the
first Autoclave to kill the germs on Surgical Equipment, the significance
of the need for proper cleaning, disinfection and sterilization is understood
well by the Medical Fraternity. While the developing countries have studies
infection control as a Science and have progressed rapidly with newer
and newer methods of sterilization and Disinfection, in India, unfortunately
we are still in the second world war age with obsolete technology, equipment
and practices. We are yet to formulate an infection control protocol and
recognize the need of a documented control over this critical aspect.
Why haven't we developed on this front ?
1. Processed like Disinfection / Sterilization are all behind the scene
matters and nobody including the surgeon and the technician is bothered
about it seriously.
2. There is dearth of qualified personnel to conduct this critical job.
Most often the most illiterate person handles this dept.
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| 3. There is no knowledge about the intrinsics
of the total removal of microbes. Thus practices observed from other places
are being followed here.
4. The processes are done more as a ritual than a Science.
|
 5.
The hospitals also spend as little as possible on this critical aspect
and considers this department as a revenue spending area.
6. The equipments are out dated and are not aimed to conduct "Sterilization
of Medical Equipment".
7. The surgeons do have an option of resorting to a wide variety of Chemotherapeutics
and believes that even if the instruments are non - sterile, the post
op infections can be taken care of by prophylactic use of couple of antibiotics.
According to the most recent figures from US Centres of Disease Control,
between 5 and 10 percent of all American hospital patients become infected
with new diseases while in hospital. hospital acquired infections are
killing 90,000 patients and sickening some 2 million every year.
|
 This
makes hospital acquired infection the fourth biggest cause of death in
US, behind heart disease, stroke and cancer.
In the PHLS study above, six specialists, general medicine, general surgery,
haematology, general ICU, geriatric medicine and nephrology accounted
for 72 percent of all hospital acquired bacterial infections. Two thirds
of all the infections were associated with an intravascular device or
other devices such as urinary catheters.
What, potentially, does such information mean to birthing women In this
country around 20 percent of women, some 160,000 each year, will have
a caesarean operation. A woman who has a caesarean will have tow out of
four of the most common risk factors - a surgical scar, a urinary catheter.
Using the PHLS figures as basis for calculation, then as 4000 women each
year will acquire infections as a result of having a caesarean.
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| Since it is estimated that around two-thirds
of these caesareans are totally unnecessary, this means that 264o women
each year may acquire bacterial infections which they did not need to
get.
The Tribune report found that nearly three quarters of the deadly infections,
or about 75,000, were preventable because they were caused by unsanitary
facilities, germ -infected instruments, unwashed hands, or other lapses.
ABCNEWS' Dr. Nancy Snyderman gave the following tips for patients : Watch
your doctor, before you're admitted. Does he wash his hands before he
touches you, and then again after he writes in your chart ? it's an early
indication of how you'll be treated in the hospital he's affiliated with,
Snyderman said. |
|  Check
out the Hospital : Go to the Hospital and look around. If there are paper
towels on the floor, and public bathrooms are dirty, these are good indications
that cleanliness is not a priority.
Ask Staff to wash their hands : You are well within your rights to ask
the people treating you to wash their hands. It won't make you popular,
but it will help you stay healthy.
Remember : Most of the germs that are causing the deaths are the same
ones that we all fight off everyday. But people in the hospital must be
treated as a special - they are susceptible, and often unable to fight
back.
Bacteria can hide anywhere, and they can collect on clothing, blankets,
walls and medical equipment. Hospital workers can pass them on by hand
and they can cling to tubes inserted into the body.
Hospital - Acquired Infection. A hospital by its very nature provides
a large pool of sick people with increased vulnerability to infection.
About 5 percent of patients who enter acute-care hospitals acquire infections
from their hospitalization, and the incidence of drug-resistant strains
of the most common of these so-called nosocomial infections. (e.g. Staphylococcus
aureus and coagulase- negative)
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| HOSPITAL - ACQUIRED INFECTIONS AND ANTIBIOTIC
RESISTANCE.HTM
Hospital - Acquired Infection. A hospital by its very nature provides
a large pool of sick people with increased vulnerability to infection.
About 5 percent of patients who enter acute-care hospitals acquire infections
from their hospitalization, and the incidence of drug-resistant strains
of the most common of these so-called nosocomial infections. (e.g. Staphylococcus
aureus and coagulase- negative)
 Staphylococci is on the rise (101) Infections
can be transmitted from staff to patients, from visitors to patients,
and from patients to other patients.
Many invasive procedures performed in hospitals, including surgeries such
as hip replacements that involve inserting a foreign body, catherterization,
transfusion, or even organ transplantation, create opportunities for nosocomial
infections to develop.
Infection control programs in many long-term-care facilities such as nursing
homes are also often ineffective and allow infections to be transmitted
rapidly among a population whose immunity has already been compromised
by age or chronic illness. Standards to control the spread of infection
among children in schools and day-care facilities are also difficult to
maintain.
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 |
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 Hospital
acquired infections (HAIs) - The most common HAIs are urinary tract infections
and infections at the site of surgical wounds. One of the most severe,
albeit rare, HAIs, is a bloodstream infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant
strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus known as MRSA. A US study
found that patients infected with MRSA had to stay in hospital three times
longer than those who were not infected.
DANGER ON TAP IN HOSPITAL : Hospital water is one of the most frequently
overlooked sources of nosocomial infection.
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So, the bad news is :
‵ More than one-third of married Indian women have chronic
energy deficiency ; mor them are anaemic.
‣ Forty-five percent of children under three are severely
and chronically malnourish
‣ Only 42 percent of children between 14.4 percent have not
received a single vaccin.
‣ Only 31 percent of the rural population has access to potable
water supply and or cent enjoys basic sanitation.
‣ In 2001, people continue to die for the same reasons they
did when India became in 1947 : infectious diseases.
‣ Babies continue to die every day of treatable respiratory
infections, diarhoea and illness either preventable through clean water,
nutritious food and cheap vaccine treatable with basic drugs.
‵ AIDS is one more infectious diseased in the landscape today.
‵ As the entire Indian population ages, many more people are
being struck down by infectious ailments. Some people believe that cancers,
diabetes and heart disease overtake infectious diseases as the number
one killer.
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| DEALING WITH DUST : Keeping dust to a
minimum is the concern of many in health care facilities. Dust can contain
microorganisms such as Aspergillus, a mold that can cause infection in
immune compromised patients. However, there are steps that can be taken
to reduce the amount of dust present in patient rooms :
‵ Have a proper ventilation system.
‵ Increase the air exchange rate in rooms so dust is drawn
through the ventilation and prevented from settling.
‵ Damp-dust surfaces while cleaning, using wet towels, cloth
or mops.
‵ Limit the number of dust gathering items in rooms of patients
who are susceptible to dust. Balloons and teddy bears are difficult to
clean.
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 |
| OR FURNITURE CAN MAKE OR BREAK A STERILE
FIELD
Surgical team members go to great lengths to create and maintain a sterile
field by following aseptic techniques, thus helping to reduce the patient's
risk of surgical site infections (SSIs). However, a stool cushion with
a slight hole, a poorly placed light pod or even traffic flow can compromise
what would have otherwise been a successful surgical procedure.
The most common way bacteria spread in a hospital is from contamination
of people's hands, or what is known as contact transmission. The remedy
is simple wash your hands.
Health care workers are required to wash their hands before and after
patient contact, after performing a procedure, and after removing their
gloves. Wearing gloves does not replace the need for hand washing because
small defects in gloves or the improper removal of dirty gloves can contaminate
the health-care worker's hands. Failure to change gloves between patients
is an infection control hazard.
|
 If
a patient has been placed in isolation, health-care workers must wash
their hands in the patient's after they remove their gloves. In addition,
visitors and family members of the patient are also expected to wash their
hands before they leave the patient's room.
Patients have the right to ask health-care workers whether they have washed
their hands. They should do so before the health-care worker touches them
or their equipment.
In a special investigations, the newspaper found that in 2000 nearly three-quarters
of these deadly infections-or about 75,000 were preventable. Strict adherence
to clean-hand policies alone could save 20,000 lives, according to the
federal government.
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|  ORTHOPAEDIC
INFECTIONS CAN BE DEVASTATING. Disease-carrying bacteria, viruses and
parasites that get into the body can destroy healthy tissue, multiply
and spread through blood. Infection of skin and other soft tissue can
lead to infection of bones (osteomyelitis) and joints (septic arthritis).
Without prompt treatment, orthopaedic infections can become chronic.
Thus, even a small scratch on the fingertip has the potential to permanently
disable your hand, or worse. Fortunately, early diagnosis, appropriate
antibiotic therapy and surgical intervention when required can cure most
infections and prevent permanent problems.
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| Nurses and other health-care workers complain
that it's virtually impossible to wash hands between every patient contact,
which could number 150 times or more a day in a busy hospital. A recent
study showed nurses would spend 1 ½ hours each day to wash hands thoroughly
with disinfectant and water. Additionally, frequent washing causes the
skin to dry out and crack. |
 Consequently,
most hospitals have begun to use a waterless disinfectant that kills germs
and instantly dries on hands. Nurses can squeeze the solution on their
hands from wall dispensers and continue to the next patient as their hands
are cleaned. Studies show the waterless system kills germs effectively
as soap and water. However, many nurses fail to adopt even this simple
measure, hospital inspection report's show.
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| HOSPITALS CAN BE A HOTBED OF CROSS CONTAMINATION
OPPORTUNITIES.
The opportunities for bacterial cross-contamination are numerous in the
healthcare environment. Both the expected and unexpected opportunities
for cross contamination in a hospital's kitchen, operating room and central
sterile department need attention.
IN THE KITCHEN : Many cases of foodborne illness are caused by the consumption
of ready-to-eat foods contaminated by poor handling techniques and the
cross contamination between raw and finished food products. Seventy-five
million cases of foodborne illness occur each year in the United States
; of these cases 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths resulted according
to a 1999 study by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).
These statistics are particularly frightening, considering that food service
in hospitals impacts a large group of immuno suppressed individuals who
are open to opportunistic pathogens. |
 |
 |
How infections are caught in hospital from
bacteria passed from staff, including doctors who have not washed their
hands from equipment such as catheters from bacteria such as staphylococcus
aureus passed through surgical wounds and intravenous lines infectious
diseases such as influenza, gastro-enteritis or Legionnaires Disease spread
from patient to patient. |
 A
hidden camera was installed outside operating room2, and the tapes revealed
that up to half of doctors, primarily surgical residents
.. did not
wash their hands before entering the operating room, according to hospital
.
(Compiled from various sources)
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| News paper reports on 'Silent Killer
in Hospitals'
FILM MAKER TO HIGHLIGHT DANGERS OF HAI
BANGALORE, APRIL 5, Is the hospital lyou go to clean enough, or
is it a source of Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI)?
HAI is a 'silent killer' because patients and the public do not know about
it. But in the United statees for example, HAI is the fourth largest cause
of mortality, killing more people than accidents, fires, and drowning
combined.
What then is the scene in Bangalore which has 240-250 large, small, private,
and government hospitals? Moreover, the City is under Category A of the
Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines, i.e. its hospitals were
to have set up bio-medical waste treatment facilities by 1999, Many still
have not.
Yet, Health officials say HAI deaths are 'minimal'. The is why, to coincide
with World Health Day April 7, a City-based documentary film-maker begins
shooting an educative film on HAI titiled "The silent killer in hospitals".
B.N. Chandrakanth, who earlier made a film on Hampi, and his company Vasath
Visuals, will make the 40-minute film in English and Kannada, Medical
support is by Manipal Hospital i.e. it will be a 'model hospital' but
Mr. Chandrakanth says he will film rural primary health centres and government
hospitals, if he gets permission to do so.
Negligent hospital management is also a cause, Mr.Chandrakanth's research
revealed that in one hospital, the corridor used to convey operated patients
from OT to ICU was swept by brooms, not wet-mopped. In another, new resident
docotors did not wash their hands before touching patients in critical
care.
In a third, the operation theatre staff were themselves unhealthy.
"Government hospitals (rural and urban) will most certainly be worse."
Mr. Chandrakanth points out. There, for instance, general wards have public.
Toilets; burns waqrd patients lie close to each other, and wardboys often
dress wounds.
Infants, very old people, diabetics, leukaemia patients, those with their
spleens remoed and HIV/AIDs patients are among the most vulnerable to
such infections. But that today's hospitals have more people who are sicker,
older, and hospitalised longer, can also lead to more HAI.
But Mr. Chandrakanth, does not blame the hospitals alone, "Peole who visit
relatives and friends in hospitals, must also have personal hygiene,"
he says.
The 40-minute film will have B.N.Vasanth Kumar as creative director of
photography; and the medical script will be by Satish Kumar Amarnath,
consultant microbiologist, Manipal Hospital. To know more, contact Mr.Chandrakanth
on 2663 2833/98440 66328.
-THE HINDU, Sunday, April 6, 2003
Camera captures silent killer in hospitals
The film will focus on practices in hospitals that could lead to infections
Dr. Amarnath from Manipal Hospital will script the documentary. It will
be directed by Chandra Kanth.
The director already claims to have footage of hospital waste being handled
without gloves and dumped outside the city,
Many a times, hospitals can end up giving patients infections that they
did not walk in with.
This is the focus of a health documentary, the shooting for which starts
in Kolar on the World Health Day which falls on Monday. The shocking fact
is being brought to light on a day the World Health Organization (WHO)
seeks to brings the spotlight on health world-wide.
Silent Killer in Hospitals, a 40-minute Vasanth Visuals production, will
try to create awareness among people on practices in hospitals that could
potentially lead to infections. "If someone in an office catches cold,
it spreads to many others in the establishment. Just like that, Infectious
diseases spread within a hospital where patients are in close proximity,'
says Dr. Satish Kumar Amarnath, chairman, Infection Control Committee,
Manipal Hospital, who is writing the script for the film.
Unfortunately, no survey has yet been taken up in our country to assess
the number of deaths that occur from infections - arising out of reused
syringes, and other careless practices - in hospitals and primary health
centres around the country.
According to the US National Nosocomial (or hospital acquired infection)
survey for 2002, such infections lead to 75,000 deaths in the US on an
average in an year.
"A simple practice like washing hands frequently could save so many lives,
yet, you will be surprised that so many infections spread because of this
negligence," says Amarnath.
Especially vulnerable to infections are cancer and transplant patients.
Kidney transplant patients are administered drugs that suppress their
immunity so that their body does not reject the transplanted organ. It
makes them highly susceptible.
Newborns, AIDS patients and those suffering from diabetes are also at
great risk.
"No hospitals has zero infection rate. It's prevalent in every single
medical practice, from a small dispensary to a large hospital. The question
is whether hospitals have any kind of verifiable clinical surveillance
to monitor infection rates," says Amarnath.
The film will be shot in Manipal Hospital though it will take a look a
the practices being following in 30-40 hospitals across the state.
"We will also look at primary health centres in rural areas that some
times do not have good water supply. We are only looking at do's and don'ts,
we are not exposing any practice," adds creative director of the film
Chandra Kanth, who had earlier made a film on Hampi, a World Heritage
Site.
The director already claims to have footage of hospital waste being handled
without gloves and dumped outside the city, rather than incinerated.
"We want to see the Government set up a statutory body to ensure compliance
of all sterilization norms and accountability of medical practitioners,"
says Amarnath, hoping that the film would bring some change.
The
New Indian Express, Bangalore, April 7, 2003.
Film portrays story of silent killers in hospitals
Bangalore, April 20 : Concerned over the unknown number of possible cases
of deaths owing to hospital acquired infections in Indian hospitals, film
maker B.N. Chandrakanth has embarked on a 40-minute documentary on the
subject, titled 'The silent killer in hospitals.'
His cause for concern stems from the intensive research he has done on
the subject.
He points out that in America, deaths linked to hospital germs represent
the fourth leading cause of mortality as per the federal centres for disease
control and prevention of the U.S.
That is not a lone statement on the subject. According to Mr. Chandrakanth,
research has found him coming across alarming statements like "The number
of people needlessly killed by hospital infections (in America) is unbelievable,
but the public doesn't know anything about it," as per a statement made
in 2002 by a leading infection-control expert and president of the Society
for healthcare epidemiology of America. Or "Strict adherence to clean-hand
policies alone could prevent the deaths of upto 20,000 patients each year,"
as the US department of health and human services has said.
Mr. Chandrakanth's documentary on Hospital Acquired Infections or Nosocomial
infections as it is scientifically known, will highlight various factors
leading to infection in hospitals. His recent documentaries, Rhythm in
silence and Whispering stones, on the World Heritage site Hampi, were
screened n Margaret Mead film and Video festival, New York, Ojai film
festival and Hollywood film festival, California and the Denver International
Film Festival, Colorado.
The new project, the first of its kind to explore the subject, has as
its prime objective, creating awareness, among hospital authorities and
the general public on the subject, as Mr. Chandrakanth told The Asian
Age.
Slated to be completed in 90 days, the film may also be screened at two
film festivals in UK and USA, Mr Chandrakanth claims. According to him,
festival authorities have already given in-principle agreement for the
participation of the film based on the script submitted to them. The movie
will showcase both the hygienic and unhygienic practices in hospitals,
he said.
The Asian Age, 21 April 2003.
Film on danger of infections
Vasanth Visuals, a Bangalore based film producing unit, will produce a
documentary on danger of infections in hospitals.
The shooting will start from tomorrow (April 7) to coincide with World
Health Day.
The 40-minute titled "The Silent Killer in Hospitals" in English on hospital
acquired -infections (Nosocomial) is being produced to highlight various
factors leading to infections in hospitals. The film is directed by B.N.
Chandra Kanth and script is written by Dr. Satish Kumar Amarnath.
Deccan Herald, Monday, April 7, 2003.
Film on 'silent killer'
" Vasanth Visuals, a documentary film producing unit, used the occasion
to launch a venture to create a film, "The silent killer in hospitals".
The film in English, scripted by Manipal Hospital's consultant microbiologist
Dr. Satish Kumar Amarnath and directed by B.N. Chandra Kanth, will highlight
the hidden perils of hospitals-acquired infections.
The Times of India, Bangalore, Tuesday, April 8, 2003.
At Manipal Hospital, we clearly understand that Hospital
Acquired Infections (HAI) can have significant effects, and in worst case
scenarios cause morbidity, permanent disability and mortality. They always
prolong patients stays in the hospital and exacerbate the accumulation
of resistance. HAls also exert socio- economic pressure in terms of time
and costs incurred on primary health-care sector, community care services,
besides mental agony to the individual patient and his family and friends.
To address these critical issues, infection control at Manipal Hospital
is an inherent component of our treatment policy. Besides control measures
to reduce HAls, the broad goals of the infection control also aim for
a coordinated approach to infection control and to enhance hospital structures
and processes for managing them. A key part of our process is to identify
international good practice, and practical solutions that can be applied
more widely - steps that would lead to improved patient care and better
value for money for them. These protocols are inadvertently followed in
the background, without the patient knowing about it and apart from the
treatment he undertakes!
We have implemented over 50 protocols and effective surveillance system
over the last four years to bring down the overall rate significantly.
To illustrate, its 0.59 percent for the Cardiac department, amongst the
lowest in the world. By implementing these protocols we have made real
improvements in the quality of care for patients and could free up significant
resources for additional patient care.
-Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, India |
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