PROBLEM: Healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs, have several “costs” associated with them, including a cost to patient lives and a cost, in dollars, to prevent them.
Click here to read about a program of safety developed by this blog’s founder — Dr. Lawrence Muscarella — for consumers (and patients) to prevent healthcare‐associated infections (HAIs).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
- Every year one of every 20 (5%) people hospitalized in the U.S. contracts a healthcare-associated infection (“HAI”);
- HAIs result in almost 270 deaths each day in the U.S. with an estimated cost to health care of over $20 billion;
- HAIs are one of this country’s “top 10” causes of death;
- Approximately 1.7 million HAIs are reported each year in hospitals in the U.S.;
- The “superbug” known as “CRE,” which is a growing cause of HAIs, kills up to 50% of infected patients; and
- More than 70 percent of the bacteria in hospital-associated infections are resistant to antibiotics.
Further, more healthcare-associated outbreaks have been linked to contaminated flexible endoscopes, including gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes, than to any other medical device. Indeed, cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes has been determined to be a leading health hazard, with one studying claiming that 3 of 20 flexible gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes used for screening were found to harbor unacceptable levels of “biodirt.”
Click here to read Dr. Muscarella’s blog “Response to a Report about GI Endoscopes Remaining Contaminated despite Cleaning.”
Other important facts about HAIs can be read in a number of publications and documents that are available on the CDC’s website (www.cdc.gov).
SOLUTION: While the problems associated with HAIs are easy to identify and discuss, the solutions to their prevention is more elusive.
A multi-pronged approach to the prevention of HAIs that features the efforts of manufacturers, healthcare facilities, consumers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proffered.
1. Medical device manufacturers: Improving the quality of reusable medical devices — for example, designing them to facilitate the cleaning and either disinfection or sterilization of their internal surfaces — is indisputably crucial to the prevention of HAIs.
- Click here to read a paper by Dr. Muscarella that discusses the importance of reusable medical devices being designed to enhance the removal of potentially infectious “bioburden” from their internal structures.
- And, click here to read about a program Dr. Muscarella developed to improve the safety and effectiveness of reusable medical devices.
2. Healthcare facilities: Like manufacturers, healthcare facilities can enhance the quality and safety of their practices through, among other initiatives, targeted education and, to be sure, independent external reviews (i.e., audits) of their infection-control and instrument-reprocessing policies, procedures and practices.
- Click here to read a blog by Dr. Muscarella that provides recommendations to prevent disease transmission and HAIs due to contaminated gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes.
- And, click here to read about a program Dr. Muscarella developed to improve the safety and quality of a healthcare facility’s policies, practices, and procedures.
3. Consumers: The slogan of a popular garment company some years ago was “an educated consumer is our best customer.” A similar slogan could be applied to healthcare facilities. Patients who are educated about the importance of infection control and learn about measures that prevent HAIs contribute to optimizing the safety and quality of health care and to reducing costs.
- Click here to read “Consumer Reports Health: How we rate hospitals” (July 2013)
There are several measures that consumers can employ to reduce the likelihood of their becoming infected during an upcoming scheduled medical procedure. A recent issue of The Wall Street Journal discussed some of these measures.
- Click here to read The Wall Street Journal’s article “Steps for Surgical Patients to Fight Infection.”
Dr. Muscarella, this blog’s founder, also offers his own program for consumers, the goal of which is to improve patient safety and prevent HAIs:
Click here to read about this program Dr. Muscarella developed for consumers (and patients) to prevent healthcare‐associated infections (HAIs).
4. FDA: The importance of the FDA (and the CDC) to the prevention of HAIs cannot he overstated. The FDA provides an important function overseeing the safety and effectiveness of products and medical devices that either are intended to prevent HAIs — for example, automated endoscope reprocessors, or AERs — or, if not properly designed, could pose an increased risk of HAIs — for example, reusable medical instruments whose internal designs may be complex and interfere with the complete removal of potentially infectious materials, such as blood, during cleaning.
- Click here to read the FDA’s safety communication entitled “Preventing Cross-Contamination in Endoscope Processing.”
- And, click here to read an article by Dr. Muscarella that provides recommendations to the FDA for improving the quality and safety of reusable medical equipment.
Email Dr. Muscarella at: Larry@myendosite.com. Blog posted: 7-30-2013.