Hospital-acquired infection: how your clinic??

What is your hospital, clinic or facility doing to increase sanitation and
cleanliness? Chances are not much aside from a little lip service.

With several states, including Florida, faced with dramatic cuts in social services Healthcare is targeted to take a direct hit which has doctors,
clinics and hospitals worried.

In the USA your chances of getting a Hospital-acquired infection (HAI)
are approximately one in 136. But some feel that number is lower
than what it should be as many cases are denied, contested or simply overlooked. Officially the US rate of infection is about half of what it is
in Britain.

At issue are dramatic cuts in Medicare and Medicaid at respectively the
state and federal levels. Then, in Florida, Governor Crist's recent mandate
that all agencies cut spending by 10%. That means less monitoring, less inspecting, less staffing while the chronically ill and medically needy suffer a reduction in services. A prescription for suffering.

Medical Bills are the #1 cause of bankruptcy and homelessness here in
the USA. Aside from lip service and phony promises, our candidates,
legislators and elected officials seemingly fail to realize the seriousness
of our health care crisis and make the cure a top priority.
...bdpoe

Dirty hospitals must clean up, says Brown

Jo Revill, Whitehall editor
Sunday July 1, 2007
The Observer

A drive to slash the rates of MRSA and other hospital infections is being masterminded by Gordon Brown, who is convinced that the public's perception of the NHS has been swayed by concerns over cleanliness on the wards.
Brown has told close colleagues that they will never win 'hearts and minds' over the health service reforms until they can demonstrate that the wards really are cleaner, and that they are cutting the numbers of patients being infected.

The Prime Minister and his aides have become alarmed that one in four hospitals is still not meeting the hygiene targets imposed in November 2004 by the then Health Secretary John Reid. Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) now affect some 300,000 people a year, and despite better control measures appear to be epidemic in some areas. The government is unlikely to meet the target it has set itself, of halving the numbers diagnosed with MRSA by next April.
Brown chose to highlight the issue of hospital cleanliness yesterday, on his first visit to a hospital - Kingston, in south-west London - as Prime Minister. A team of experts is being set up within the Department of Health to look at new measures to deal with the problem. The new health minister, the surgeon Professor Ara Darzi, will be asked to devise a new strategy to combat the infections.

Since MRSA first hit British hospitals 10 years ago, it has spread across the country, as an increasing number of people became resistant to antibiotics, coupled with poor cleaning on the wards and the fast turnover of patients.

In recent weeks, Brown has been touring the country listening to Labour supporters and the public. One aide told The Observer that the Prime Minister had been dismayed by the numbers who put MRSA top of their priorities for the NHS. 'We've been thinking that tackling the waiting lists is the number one issue, along with better access to the GP, but we know that dirty hospitals are in the public mind,' the aide said.

The new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, visited Kingston hospital with Brown yesterday, where they learnt how the hospital had managed to reduce its MRSA rate by 47 per cent.

The hospital imposed a stringent system of hand hygiene compliance and general cleanliness. Posters have been put up urging visitors and staff to wash their hands, and a team goes around the hospital every week and observes staff to give them a hygiene compliance score.

Other hospitals are also tackling the superbug. In the final quarter of last year, 1,542 patients had MRSA infecting their bloodstream, seven per cent fewer than in the previous quarter.