When a patient comes to your facilities for healthcare, they expect that you can effectively address the issue quickly and with ease and expertise. Now, imagine that this same individual ends up receiving an infection while under your care. The spread of infection in healthcare environments, as well as how it affects both your patients and your healthcare workers, is an important topic to evaluate, especially if these types of incidents happen frequently. Below, we'll dive deeper into insightful statistics regarding infection in healthcare facilities, how infections spread and how they can be addressed, and why reaching out to hospital infection control consultants can help you improve your approach to infection control and prevention.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) or healthcare-associated infections may occur more frequently than expected, perhaps because patient care might not be as satisfactory as many healthcare professionals believe. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 1.7 million patients contract HAIs annually while receiving treatment for issues unrelated to the infection that they've contracted. Even more troubling, approximately 98,000 of these individuals (about 1 in 17) die as a result of their infection.
For those who operate several facilities, these statistics can be eye-opening, and revealing just how much of a threat HAIs pose to patient safety naturally drives action. Before you can successfully address hospital infection control and defend your patients and healthcare personnel against infectious diseases, you first must understand where the greatest risks lie and what type of response your facilities should take to prevent and control infections.
What are the causes of HAIs, and how can they be addressed and avoided?
Clinicians and healthcare professionals must first understand what causes HAIs before they can take steps to reduce these risks and provide patients with long-term care that results in fewer infectious outbreaks. HAIs require three distinct things in order for infection to occur:
These patterns of infection are predictable, which means that it's possible for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to defend against infections. Some of the best ways to prevent and control infection include the following:
Effective hospital infection control begins with education and ends with actionable plans that you can incorporate into your facilities' cultures to provide a better quality of care.
Infection prevention and control both require deep knowledge of navigating crises, identifying risks, and creating plans for the future. Our expert consultants and resources here at ECRI can provide you with the support you need to investigate current incidents while simultaneously putting safeguards in place and helping you prepare for potential issues. Our extensive knowledge base and online courses and resources make it easy for your personnel to learn more about infection control and risk management in order to fully support your facilities and everyone inside.
Learn more about how ECRI’s knowledge can help you reduce infection risks: www.ecri.org/solutions/infection-prevention.