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Posted on 11/17/2008 6:34:06 PM PST by Clint Williams
MRSA, a drug-resistant germ, lurks in Washington hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading here at an alarming rate, but no one has tracked these cases -- until now.Year after year, the number of victims climbed. But even as casualties mounted -- as the germ grew stronger and spread inside hospitals-- the toll remained hidden from the public, and hospitals ignored simple steps to control the threat.
Over the past decade, the number of Washington hospital patients infected with a frightening, antibiotic-resistant germ called MRSA has skyrocketed from 141 a year to ...
...
No surprise inspections
In the past, the state health department conducted surprise inspections to ensure that hospitals adhered to health and safety codes, from patient care to building maintenance.
But in 2002, the Washington State Hospital Association issued a 28-page report: "How Regulations are Overwhelming Washington Hospitals." In it, hospital administrators claimed surprise inspections disrupted patient care.
In Olympia, lawmakers voted unanimously to eliminate surprise inspections starting in July 2004. Today, the Department of Health must provide four weeks' notice -- even the exact hour of arrival. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I’ve often wondered if a dedicated “clean team” that went around constantly disinfecting door knobs, bed railings and other commonly touched areas, would make a difference in combating this stuff.
It’s going to be even better with socialized medicine!
And I thought the mold was bad here...
I've worked in hospitals my entire life....inspections are a "look good" opportunity instead of a "be good" consistency.....
administrations are so paranoid about the inspections THEMSELVES that a great deal of time is put into the "looking good" philosophy, which means looking good on PAPER.....
instead of providing much needed hands on staff, the big shots would rather hire another "consultant" to figure out how to scam the process.....
as to MRSA...hospitals did not create MRSA and it just so happens that it exists everywhere, in schools, in jails, in gyms, etc.....
we know there are people with MRSA because in the hospital we actually dare to TEST people.....I dare the school districts to do that or the jail systems.....they might find out that they carry a large number of cases and then THEY would have to deal with it... would that mean separate cells for all prisoners?....no more athletics?....
MRSA came about simply because of our over use of antibiotics, taking antibiotics carelessly and not finishing prescriptions, and it will increase because people are living longer thx to modern medicine but sadly not always living better ....eg....chronic lung disease, diabetes,heart failure, cancer, hiv.....all these people are highly susceptible to any infections.....a healthy person probably carries MRSA,doesn't always know it, and remains healthy despite it.....
Yeah....all those stupid soaps (antibacterial) REALLY helped....sheesh....you are so right!
dittos to everything you said. I work in Infection Control in a hospital.
Stay out of hospitals and away from doctors. They’ll make you sick.
and the angel broke the seal and unleashed palgues upon the earth...
What you say is so true. I recently worked in a Rehab center for brain damaged people and happened to be there during a state inspection. I learned what the "real" rules were during that week. After the week and inspection was over one employee started bringing her dog to work with her again. It was very enlightening and a bit more than scary.
Health care workers (doctors included) don’t always wash their hands. Until recently, they relied on antibiotics to clean up any mess that resulted from sloppy hygiene. New Hampshire started a hand washing campaign for hospitals:
Hand Hygiene Training & Competency
All new and current patient care staff members and physicians will be trained in HH and required to demonstrate competency in HH.
How sad is that! (Semmelweis is rolling in his grave...)
I’m a pediatric nurse, and I’ve seen a lot of kids come in with MRSA. Mostly cellulitis, or skin and soft tissue infections. 100% of those patients have had Community Acquired MRSA.
Anyhow, we would bleach wash the entire OR, then wash. At the time we were also practicing how to take and grow cultures, and identify the common infectious bacteria. So we would also culture the OR. Often we couldn't get a culture.
Anyhow, hot water, elbow grease, detergent, bleach and rinsing.
I go into hospitals now and to me they are filthy, sticky. I see some schlep with a spray bottle and a dirty rag just spraying over a build up of the last spray/dirt/filth.
But if inspections are surprise inspections then the dog can never show up.... presumably.
My experience with hospitals is that it is full of staff that are not even bothered with washing their own hands so forget about sterile anything else.
I saw a very good documentary on (believe it or not) PBS about the
fight against MRSA.
Included in the show was the FIGHT a doctor had to put up in order to
convince the hospital admininstration to try a special bandage with
embedded antibiotics to fight MRSA in surgical patients.
And how he eventually convinced the hospital managers to spend a paltry
amount of money to order some of the bandages when he showed that the
hospital lost LARGE sums of $$$ for every surgical patient that got MRSA.
Here’s a link to the doctor’s webpage...for future reference.
http://www.wpahs.org/agh/im_residency/physicians/shannon.html
It would and does. Many hospitals have trained their cleaning staffs to be especially cognizant of MSRA and to try to disinfect everything they can think of. But one of the easiest ways to keep from spreading MSRA is for the nurses and doctors to simply wash their hands as soon as they enter the patient’s rooms and before they touch anything.
“and the angel broke the seal and unleashed palgues upon the earth...”
“15But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:...
21The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
27The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.”
Deuteronomy, Chapter 28
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