HealthCare Acquired Infection (HCAI) has GeriTraK wondering about the ongoing number of unspoken cases in our community.
It is the beginning of April 2020 and we are seeing the daily total of corona virus deaths. It is difficult to watch and very sobering to even think about.
Our minds are struggling each day to make sense of how the numbers of people dying can be accurate. It all feels like a science fiction movie. People are affected in so many countries yet each day we are given updated numbers of people dying.
Worse still, the authors of the Covid-19 updates state the numbers are likely to be underestimates. And we should be prepared for rapidly escalating numbers in hot spots.
The psychological trauma is a lot to assimilate.
It dawned on us that we are not shown the number of people dying in other life circumstances.
While watching the estimates it is also worth thinking about the deaths per year from HealthCare-Associated Infection (HCAI)
Why do we want to talk about this now?
Because if we could look at the numbers then the question becomes, why wouldn’t we?
We won’t bore you with the numbers from so many sources.
It is advised that you search this yourself if interested.
But we will give you a quick summary
“The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention
identifies that nearly 1.7 million hospitalized patients annually acquire HCAIs while being treated for other health issues and that more than 98,000 of these patients (one in 17) die due to HCAIs”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245375/pdf/idr-11-2321.pdf
Healthcare acquired infections really matter and need to be reduced.
The question – what about Healthcare Acquired Infection?
If we can address the Covid-19 issue, then can’t we easily address the high HealthCare Acquired Infection rate that is widely knowledged?
Can the world come together and help the US reflect what may be more impactful to our thinking?
The recent example of accepting masks from Eastern countries is a good example.
Can the US accept other ways of doing things to save lives from healthcare acquired illness?
We would hope so.
Acceptance of mask usage for everyone to reduce coronavirus spread shows a willingness to change our USA way of thinking.
We can all benefit from thinking differently.
Plus there could be a huge impact on death reduction from getting sick because of being in hospital.
We know this sounds odd because we go to the hospital to get well.
Potential Changes to Reduce HCAI
Do our cleaning staff need better technique or equipment?
Do the Healthcare workers need re-education on a weekly basis on how not to infect someone when going from patient to patient?
Could digital record keepers and phones be cross-infecting patients?
Should we have more checks and balances so that we follow each hospital acquired infection to try to determine the cause?
(This is working for tracing cases of Coronovirus).
Do we need less legal liability to actually create meaningful change?
Do patients need to demand glove changes and more hand washing from healthcare workers?
Could infection hand scanners be developed for people to see hand wash results?
Please comment below on what you think would change the numbers because this deserves our attention now!
GeriTraK. Good To Know