Hospitals Shouldn’t Make You Sicker
A vigorous quality-improvement program at more than 150 Veterans Affairs hospitals has achieved remarkable results controlling infections over the past several years. It reduced the spread of one of the most deadly bacterial infections, known as MRSA, by 62 percent in intensive care units and 45 percent in other hospital units. If other hospitals could replicate the effort, thousands of patients might be saved from needless infections acquired after they entered the hospital.
A report on the VA’s accomplishment was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The agency used a “bundle” of measures, including screening all patients with nasal swabs and isolating those found infected with MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. All health care workers were urged to take special precautions to prevent spreading germs from those patients and to wash their hands carefully. And the VA sought to change its “institutional culture” so that all personnel felt responsible for controlling the bacterium.
Read the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/opinion/18mon3.html?_r=1&hp#
