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Biggest Breakthrough in Healthcare
Creators Syndicate ^ | May 7, 2013 | Betsy McCaughey

Posted on 05/07/2013 10:25:26 AM PDT by jazusamo

A 180-degree change in how doctors and hospital administrators think about germs is likely to almost eliminate the biggest risk of being hospitalized: getting an infection.

Until now, doctors and hospital administrators routinely dismissed questions about cleanliness by saying "germs are everywhere." But at last week's meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America in Atlanta, the focus was on making patients' rooms germ-free by testing for bacteria after cleaning and using ultra-violet light and room fogging machines.

Finally, the medical community is acknowledging that inadequately cleaned rooms and equipment are to blame for infections and doing something about it. "There's been a complete turnaround," says Dr. Curtis Donskey from the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

In 1970, when antibiotics cured most hospital infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Hospital Association advised hospitals to stop testing surfaces for bacteria. Visually clean was enough, even though bacteria are invisible.

To this day, most hospitals don't test, even in operating rooms, and neither does the Joint Commission that accredits U.S. hospitals. Meat processing plants get a more rigorous inspection for cleanliness.

Patients have no control over which room they're assigned, but it's the biggest predictor of who picks up a hospital germ such as VRE (vancomycin-resisitant Enterococcus), according to Tufts University researchers. A germ from one patient lingers on a bedrail or other object for even two weeks and then is picked up on the hands of a doctor treating another patient — a deadly chain reaction. Even when doctors and nurses clean their hands, they become re-contaminated seconds after washing — as soon as they touch a keyboard, bedrail or other bacteria-laden object.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: bacteria; healthcare; infection; sterilization
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1 posted on 05/07/2013 10:25:26 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

hand transmission is the #1 route.

bedsheets are next to them.


2 posted on 05/07/2013 10:31:40 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: jazusamo
My 99-yo grandmother was "guinea pig'd" by a hospital for a hip replacement that shouldn't have even been attempted. She made it through the procedure OK but a post-op infection in a facility notorious for them got her anyway. I avoid the place like it was... infected.

Mr. niteowl77

3 posted on 05/07/2013 10:38:11 AM PDT by niteowl77 (Oh, crap.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

With the increasing problems of antibiotic resistant strains it’s encouraging to see they’re finally making some progress and getting some positive results with these methods.


4 posted on 05/07/2013 10:38:45 AM PDT by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends






KILL IT!

PLEASE Support Free Republic.

It's vitally important to keep FR Alive!

5 posted on 05/07/2013 10:38:56 AM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: jazusamo

This is old news. I new this as a child. Learn how to take care of yourself for common problems rather then expose yourself to what could be worse infections in the hospital.
You can walk in with a cut from a fall and walk out with pneumonia.


6 posted on 05/07/2013 10:39:29 AM PDT by glyptol
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To: jazusamo

wash your hand with soap and water, was preached in hospitals back in the 70’s and 80’s


7 posted on 05/07/2013 10:41:55 AM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Getting rid of “Hospitals” is the answer. People should remain in their home except for very few procedures. Hospitals are giant petri dishes. The unemployed should be trained and paid according to skill level. Telemedicine will overcome logistics. There will be fewer and fewer MD’s and most care will be provided by lower paid nurse practitioners (willingly prostituting themselves for Obamacare)
I’m a nurse and I can’t believe how much of my profession believes this is going to be great.


8 posted on 05/07/2013 10:42:18 AM PDT by az wildkitten (8 years 'til I retire)
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To: niteowl77

I’m surprised they’d attempt a hip replacement for a 99-yo, God rest her soul.

I avoid hospitals like the plague and don’t even care to see my Doc even though he’s a great guy, they’re a center for germs.


9 posted on 05/07/2013 10:42:56 AM PDT by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

10 posted on 05/07/2013 10:49:11 AM PDT by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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To: jazusamo

Hospitals are the breeding grounds for infections.
In January my toddler grandson was running, fell and split his lip. I took him to the hospital to get stitches. Two days later I had a staph infection from sitting in the waiting room area.


11 posted on 05/07/2013 10:51:41 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Gun Control is the Key to totalitarianism and genocide.)
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To: jazusamo

Bad “germs” grow when good ones are destroyed. I wonder if they have thought of trying to populate areas with the good “germs” so as to let them take care of the bad ones. This is why hospital are such breeding grounds for tough germs, because the good ones have been taken away with all of the sanitizing.


12 posted on 05/07/2013 11:00:30 AM PDT by Bellflower (The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
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To: jazusamo

Hospitals are how they get rid of people who just don’t know when to die.


13 posted on 05/07/2013 11:39:14 AM PDT by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
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To: az wildkitten

Sad. Like most things connected to Obama...


14 posted on 05/07/2013 11:44:36 AM PDT by swampthang77
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To: BuffaloJack
Hospitals are the breeding grounds for infections. In January my toddler grandson was running, fell and split his lip. I took him to the hospital to get stitches. Two days later I had a staph infection from sitting in the waiting room area.

yeah, it couldn't have been from the ground that came up and hit him in the face that drove dirt into the wound... it came from just sitting in the ER.

15 posted on 05/07/2013 11:47:04 AM PDT by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
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To: jazusamo

I used to tell the EX (who wanted every Operation or Hospital visit ever recommended)

“Yeah, let’s go to the Hospital, Ya wanna get Sick? That is where they keep all the rally Good Diseases”

TT

Monkey Pox or Ebola on her ... she would die happy (and then leave me alone)


16 posted on 05/07/2013 11:50:00 AM PDT by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: BuffaloJack

“Hospitals are the breeding grounds for infections.
In January my toddler grandson was running, fell and split his lip. I took him to the hospital to get stitches. Two days later I had a staph infection from sitting in the waiting room area.”

I truly don’t want to seem harsh but by your same reasoning ambulances cause car wrecks? I know because every time I pass by a car accident on the road an ambulance is always there.


17 posted on 05/07/2013 11:51:52 AM PDT by Cyman
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Except for really really bad bugs, I think its healthy to not be overly ridiculously clean (In a hospital where your immune system is already compromised I can see sanitizing everything), but in every day life low level exposure keeps your immune system healthy and you are always building anti-bodies to new stuff. Ergo, despite the fact I travel extensively and am exposed to all sorts of stuff I only get a cold maybe once every 4 or 5 years, whereas a friend of mine who religiously sanitizes her hands and everything around her seemingly every 5 minutes constantly has some kind of cold or flu. Also I’ve noticed throughout the years that children of parents who are germophobes and practically keep the kids hermetically sealed tend to have kids weaker and more prone to sickness than those whose parents allow their kids to roll around in the dirt all day.


18 posted on 05/07/2013 11:52:02 AM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%)
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To: dsrtsage

Don’t expect much support, this site is loaded with obsessive-cleaniaks, as I learned a few months ago after telling them that I wash my hands about 3 times a day (unless I’m working on cars).


19 posted on 05/07/2013 12:32:50 PM PDT by BobL (Look up "CSCOPE" if you want to see something really scary)
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To: jazusamo
I’m surprised they’d attempt a hip replacement for a 99-yo

There was an element of "let's see if it can be done succesfully on someone that age" going on. (The facility in question is a "teaching" hospital, and has a long history of such attitudes.)

20 posted on 05/07/2013 12:47:46 PM PDT by niteowl77 (Oh, crap.)
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