Every Patient's Advocate Column

Prevent Your Own Hospital Infections

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We recently learned 105 hospitals across the United States have been lauded by Consumer Reports for achieving something hospitals have previously insisted was impossible.

Their accomplishment? No central line infections. Therefore, no patient deaths from central line infections.

This is huge!

Central lines are catheters that are inserted intravenously to deliver drugs and nutrition to patients who can’t swallow. They become an easy route for infections like MRSA or C.Diff. As a result, thousands die each year.

Hospitals have previously considered these infections impossible to eradicate because they can’t be destroyed by antibiotics. Until recently there hasn’t been much emphasis on prevention. But in 2008, Medicare stopped paying for patients who contracted these infections during a hospital stay, hoping hospitals would work to eliminate them.

Realizing how much money they might lose, some hospitals did switch their focus, and began to concentrate on preventing central line infections. According the Consumer Reports, 105 hospitals reached that no-infection goal. Further, they did it using very low-tech, low-cost means, implementing a simple checklist, and insisting that caregiving personnel wash their hands.

Unfortunately, not all of us have access to these infection-free hospitals. Whether or not you’ll need a central line, here are some steps to take to protect yourself from hospital infections:


•	Check out your State Health Department’s listing to see which hospitals have the lowest infection rates. (Not all states maintain this information.) If you haven’t yet chosen your doctor, then choose one with admitting privileges at the cleanest hospital.
•	If you are already working with the doctor who will admit you, ask her about the hospital’s infection rates. Make her aware that you will be monitoring infection possibilities.
•	As you prepare for your hospital stay, pack anti-bacterial wipes or sprays. Germs can come from such items as the TV remote, the bed rails or telephone. With sprays and wipes, you can disinfect them yourself.
•	During your stay, when approached by healthcare personnel who will touch you, you or your bedside advocate should insist on watching them wash, then sanitize their hands before they put on gloves. Those zero-infection hospitals also insist personnel wear masks and gloves, and that central-line patients be fully draped when dressings are changed.

Those hospitals have proved central line infections can be eliminated. However, the fact remains that in most hospitals we patients will need to insist on preventing them ourselves.
.................................... Learn more about hospital acquired infections and how you can prevent them.

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Trisha Torrey is Every Patient’s Advocate^TM.
She offers no medical advice, but empowers those who
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