US Healthcare leadership: oxymoron 7 – basic sanitation
by Miki Saxon
If you haven’t heard it already, here’s a story guaranteed to make you think at least twice before opting for any kind of avoidable surgery or hospital stay.
“…hospital-acquired infections that kill nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. each year, according to federal estimates.”
That’s a very large number, especially when the top culprits are, “Doctors, nurses and other hospital staffers too busy, too distracted — or, sometimes, too arrogant — to wash [their hands].”
Can you even remember at what age your mom started the “wash your hands” ritual? Not to mention all the germ-killing products ads we’re inundated with daily.
How bad is it?
“At best, hospital staffers wash adequately about half the time…” Still worse, “some hospitals post hand hygiene rates as low as 20 percent when they start tracking the problem…”
While a 50% voter turnout is something to cheer, 50% adequate hand-washing, let alone 20%, is the stuff of nightmares.
And did you notice the qualifier ‘adequate’?
“National guidelines say they’re supposed to use alcohol-based hand rubs or soap and warm water for at least 15 seconds before and after every direct contact with a patient, with excretions, or with contaminated surfaces or objects,” moreover, that includes when they’re wearing gloves—strip the gloves and wash.
Of course, the information that washing reduces infections has only been around since 1846, so maybe it hasn’t had time to spread.
“…an August study in the journal Pediatrics that showed that boosting hygiene rates cut hospital-acquired infections by 60 percent in more than 1,000 tiny newborns at a children’s hospital in Switzerland,” and that was with a lousy 13% hand hygiene improvement!
According to Dr. Robert Wise, vice president of standards and survey methods for the Joint Commission, a national hospital accrediting agency, “there aren’t a lot of ways to measure compliance.”
Considering the rise of drug-resistant germs, such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), your best bet if you or someone you care about is hospitalized is to have someone who’s conscious available and always ask your provider to wash—be it your doctor, surgeon, a nurse or someone else.
Keep in mind that this applies just as much to doctor and dentist office visits, lab tests (I still remember ten years ago when I was in San Francisco and the tech refused to wear gloves when she went to draw my blood—needless to say I asked for and got another tech.) or any other setting.
Tomorrow I return to money—a healthcare subject near to all our hearts.
Have you had to ask someone to wash?
Would you?
Your comments—priceless
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March 28th, 2008 at 12:23 am
[…] in Thailand and just $10K in India—all countries where the medical staffs are probably better at hand-washing, […]
June 28th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
An overseas client recently said, “We want a healthcare system just like the US.” My response was to the point: Are you sure?
At least we are now beyond arguing whether the problem of preventable mistakes is at a crisis level.
Progress is painful and slow…
June 28th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Hi John, Did you ask if they were sure before or after cracking up?
As to progress, I suppose that admitting the problem can be termed progress of sorts.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:46 am
The fact that we now talk about the problem openly that the staggering death rate in hospitals as the result of preventable incidents — medical mistakes, failure-to-rescue, unacceptable clinical processes, inadequate training — is progress. That does not mean that industry leaders or legislative leaders have the will to correct this massive problem even though studies show that quality/safe care is cheaper care. Oh well, even today there are probably those who think the earth is flat and that our pollution of the environment has not exacerbated problems with this global warming cycle.
Here is a broader question: Why is the healthcare industry not taking the lead to develop a plan to reform our broken delivery network? Why do they prefer to sit back and oppose change rather than take the initiative, with physicians, pharmaceutical companies, unions etc. to fix this mess which, by the way, is a contributing factor to the breakdowns in quality of care and patient safety?
The truth is that we do not have a healthcare SYSTEM in the U.S. That is a myth. We have hundreds of SILOS, many of which are in disrepair, that are held together by rusty wire that is a failing reimbursement system. Of concern is that the people who run these silos, and the physicians who practice in them, are perceived to be reluctant to accept accountability. While that is not really a fair charge, it is a perception that is winning the day in the arena of public opinion.
I do not mean to bite the hand that feeds. I love what I do and I like healthcare for it can become again.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Hi John, Silos is a superb description for it. And since you know far more than I on this subject, allow me a question. You say, “While that [not accepting responsibility] is not really a fair charge, it is a perception that is winning the day in the arena of public opinion.”
How is it not a fair charge? If not the silo keepers and physicians (who are sometimes themselves silo keepers) who does need to step up and accept accountability?
And I don’t think recognizing that the house you live in has rotten floorboards in need of replacement is indicative of wanting to tear down the structure.
Just my 2 cents.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
[…] We all know how important it is to wash our hands, but many of us are careless about doing it—including healthcare […]