Guest guest Posted August 1, 2002 Report Share Posted August 1, 2002 Don't you know by now that the worse place you can be when you are sick is a hospital? BEB E. Bledsoe, DO, FACEP Midlothian, Texas All outgoing email scanned by Norton Antivirus and guaranteed " virus free " or your money back. Are we making our patients ill? > A recent article in the Dallas paper indicated that the number of > in-hospital bacterial infections has gained epidemic proportions, resulting > in many documented deaths. The number one source of antibiotic resistant > bacterial infection seems to be the hospital. Among other things, the use of > stethoscopes on multiple patients without sterilization was mentioned as a > means of contamination. > > Nothing in the article mentioned prehospital, but a letter to the editor in > today's paper did, and stethoscopes were mentioned as the culprit. I wonder, > do any services in the state have a policy regarding sterilization of > stethoscopes and other non-disposable items after a call? > > Regards, > Donn > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2002 Report Share Posted August 1, 2002 Actually, this sort of follows the logic of " road rage. " Newspapers started reporting it more, so the AAA published a study on how fast it's increased, based on the number of incidents reported. This study fueled more reporting, which led to an even faster rise in " road rage. " Much the same with nosocomial infections and/or those of iatrogenic origin. They're being reported more, so obviously they're " on the rise. " <grin> Mike > Are we making our patients ill? > > > A recent article in the Dallas paper indicated that the > number of in-hospital bacterial infections has gained > epidemic proportions, resulting in many documented deaths. > The number one source of antibiotic resistant bacterial > infection seems to be the hospital. Among other things, the > use of stethoscopes on multiple patients without > sterilization was mentioned as a means of contamination. > > Nothing in the article mentioned prehospital, but a letter to > the editor in today's paper did, and stethoscopes were > mentioned as the culprit. I wonder, do any services in the > state have a policy regarding sterilization of stethoscopes > and other non-disposable items after a call? > > Regards, > Donn > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2002 Report Share Posted August 1, 2002 Yeah, man, people DIE in hospitals at a SIGNIFICANTLY higer rate than in the general public! Mike > Re: Are we making our patients ill? > > > Don't you know by now that the worse place you can be when > you are sick is a hospital? > > BEB > > E. Bledsoe, DO, FACEP > Midlothian, Texas > > All outgoing email scanned by Norton Antivirus and guaranteed > " virus free " or your money back. > > Are we making our patients ill? > > > > A recent article in the Dallas paper indicated that the number of > > in-hospital bacterial infections has gained epidemic proportions, > resulting > > in many documented deaths. The number one source of antibiotic > > resistant bacterial infection seems to be the hospital. Among other > > things, the use > of > > stethoscopes on multiple patients without sterilization was > mentioned > > as a means of contamination. > > > > Nothing in the article mentioned prehospital, but a letter to the > > editor > in > > today's paper did, and stethoscopes were mentioned as the culprit. I > wonder, > > do any services in the state have a policy regarding > sterilization of > > stethoscopes and other non-disposable items after a call? > > > > Regards, > > Donn > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 1, 2002 Report Share Posted August 1, 2002 --- " Dr. Bledsoe " wrote: > Don't you know by now that the worse place you > can be when you are sick is a > hospital? > > BEB > > E. Bledsoe, DO, FACEP > Midlothian, Texas Of course it is...There's sick people in the hospital...you could catch something. lol phil __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 2, 2002 Report Share Posted August 2, 2002 The EMT curriculum(at least in Texas)does stress BSI precautions, but there is not even a passing mention of sterile technique, untill at least Intermediate level. Even BSI precautions are not taken on the ambulance. I have seen apalling things like blood pressure cuffs soaked in blood gingerly replaced in the emergency bag, therefore contaminating all its contents. Once, my preceptor handed me a blood soaked needle to conduct an FSBS test. I was not even wearing gloves at that time. What is really cheesey is that everyone wears the same stethoscope (hanging in the back of the ambulance), without cleaning it out. Nurses in the hospital are no better. The more they have been around, the less they have fear of catching or giving anything to anyone. __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 3, 2002 Report Share Posted August 3, 2002 I have provoked groans time after time by haranguing my students about practicing good infection control. I have had students actually leave the program rather than remove their nose, tongue and eyebrow rings before going to clinicals, leave off makeup, not wear rings or other jewelry, clean their stethoscopes and scissors and other serially used items between calls, wash their hands or use the available disinfectant properly, and learn not to pick their noses, rub their eyes and bite their fingernails while at work. Even worse, most of them haven't a clue how to avoid contaminating everything from Bugtussle to Muleshoe when working a patient with body fluids flying. I require them to triple glove, so that they can shuck one pair if it becomes bloody or contaminated and then be able to enter the truck without smearing gradoo on everything. Then I make them shuck the second pair after they place the patient on the hospital gurney so that they remain gloved while they disinfect stretcher, steth, and so forth. It seems not to have occurred to most of them that the stretcher is contaminated with the patient's everything, and when they shuck their gloves in the ER and then grab the stretcher barehanded to roll it back outside and replace it in the truck (you notice I didn't include decontaminating it because that's seldom done) they have just contaminated themselves just as if they hadn't worn gloves to begin with. DUH! There are other obvious advantages to multiple gloving, one of which is when the Tegaderm or tape latches onto your glove while you're trying to secure your IV you can just shuck that pair of gloves and don another pair over the others and continue. You're not left barehanded. Same for getting a rip or tear in a glove. At least having another pair or two on minimizes the risk of getting stuff down to the skin with a glove failure. All this takes zilch amount of time to employ. Does anybody else take this approach with students or employees? Gene G. Gene Gandy, JD, LP 4250 East Aquarius Drive Tucson, AZ 85718 home and fax cell wegandy@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 4, 2002 Report Share Posted August 4, 2002 Just a thought... We have none for years about hospitals and infections, but where is this WE stuff coming from [now, that something negative is out... EMS is apart of the medical community?]. Just a thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 4, 2002 Report Share Posted August 4, 2002 I do. But I did learn from the best,Gene Gandy. And I try to teach our future employees the importance of minimizing the risks of contamination.....Sincerely, Bettina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 4, 2002 Report Share Posted August 4, 2002 I strongly suggest multi-gloving at the least indication that the incident will be messy. Also, we respond to a nursing home in which several of the patients have contracted MRSA or some other contagious malady. If we have any information that the patient to whom we are responding is one of those (the nursing home staff is not always " forthcoming " with this information), I prefer most of the crew to stay outside the room, in the hall, and pass only the necessary supplies and equipment to the person doing the hands-on patient care. This follows the logic of the HazMat community: Don't contaminate anybody or anything that's not absolutely necessary. Of course, if we need to get everybody into the room for appropriate patient care, then everybody goes. However, it's surprising how often we can do everything that needs to be done with one or two people while the other two or three stand by outside. We've received some weird looks from a couple of the EMS crews (invariably crews who don't know us) until we explain the situation to them and they determine that everything is done that needs to be done at my level. This, of course, prevents the whole " decontamination " issue by preventing contamination in the first place. stay safe - phil - I require them to triple glove, so > that they can shuck one pair if > it becomes bloody or contaminated and then be > able to enter the truck without > smearing gradoo on everything. Then I make > them shuck the second pair after > they place the patient on the hospital gurney > so that they remain gloved > while they disinfect stretcher, steth, and so > forth. __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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