Hospital Acquired Infections

I feel that it is a positive change of focus in health care that facilities are being held accountable for nosocomial infections or infections that are acquired during a patients hospital stay. An example of such an infection would be the patient who develops a urinary tract infection from a urinary catheter placement where non-sterile technique was used. At one time the focus had been primarily in treating these infections along with the other issues that the patient was hospitalized for. There has been a shift in some of the focus areas of a patients hospital stay, one of  which is the importance of the prevention of these infections.

There has been some evidence published in the Society of Urinary Nurses journal that indicates that urinary catheters impregnated with a silver coating help to fight off infection and kill bacteria. Silver has a natural antimicrobial property that is also safe to use on humans. Urinary catheters are not the only place that silver is being used in health care. Wounds are being treated with dressings that contain a silver lining that is applied directly to the skin and some facilities are using a silver coated disk under the dressing of peripherally inserted central catheters or PICC line. All of these products and the facilities willingness to use them is in effort to reduce the number of infections that are acquired during a patients hospital stay. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574126

It has also become common practice to exercise the use of interventions that focus on the prevention of ventilator acquired pneumonia. Infection Control Today reports that research has shown that patients benefit from regular oral care, keeping the head of their bed elevated to a minimum of a 30 degree angle and discontinuing  or pausing any tube feeding when a patient has to have their head at an angle lower than 30 degrees. By utilizing these interventions fewer patients are faced with the added challenge of fighting pneumonia in addition to their other injuries or disease processes.
 http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2010/01/clinicians-share-vap-prevention-strategies.aspx
Improvement in patient health is not the only motivation in this change of mind set within the medical community. There is the force to consider that dictates so many things in our lives, money. According to Scumdoctor.com the federal government, particularly the department overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and the reimbursements has implemented new rules. Medical facilities will not loner receive reimbursement for charges associated with the preventable infections that patients contract during their hospital stay. This new policy was implemented with the goal of improving infection prevention for patients and placing a focus on the quality of health care being delivered. http://www.scumdoctor.com/insurance/medicare/Medicare-Reimbursement-For-Nosocomial-Infection.html

Some people may be opposed to these new policies implemented in health care due to the lack of funds being reimbursed to facilities, but in my opinion they are a direct way of making patient health and infection prevention a priority.