Hospitals often fail at infection control - Now suddenly they are supposed to handle Ebola?

I've worked in hospitals. So did my dad. So did my mom. When my dad later became infirm and was hospitalized, he contracted MRSA from lack of proper infection control procedures. 1 in 25 patients hospitalized will become infected while at the hospital with any one of a number of infectious agents. Preparing hospitals to handle Ebola now, after it is already here, seems a bit bass ackwards to me.

Excerpt from below article: "DIRTY HANDS, DIRTY EQUIPMENT: Violations involve health care workers failing to disinfect their hands or use protective gear properly — gloves, gowns, masks and other items that must be donned and removed in very precise ways. In one case, more than 60 personnel at a single hospital were cited for failing to use face masks properly."

From USA Today: Public health authorities race to assess the U.S. medical system's ability to contain Ebola, the track record of the nation's hospitals in controlling other infections suggests a lot of them aren't prepared. From small, rural hospitals to sprawling urban medical centers, infection control has been a persistent and vexing problem in U.S. health care for decades. Many hospitals handle these cases without incident. But lapses in procedures to isolate contagious patients, to protect health care workers from dangerous bacteria and viruses, and to clean contaminated equipment consistently rank among the most common deficiencies cited in hospital inspections and accreditation reviews.

Link to full article: usat.ly...

Your concern is warranted, what you state is absolutely true, Ebola can not be contained once it gets a foothold in asymptomatic reservoir vectors.

Hospitals can not and do not have the means to fight this.

MRSA and Ebola are two different things.

MRSA is commonly problematic because it is antibiotic resistant and exacerbated by poor procedures for infection control. People catch MRSA after e.g. surgery.

Ebola is tackled by isolation of infected individuals and measures to avoid passing on the virus. It would be relatively straightforward to create isolated wards to treat and prevent the spread of Ebola. It is more difficult to stop MRSA as it is already part of the environment.

Regards

Watch this interview from Dallas nurse Briana Aguirre with Matt Lauer. She describes the situation during Duncan's care and the incompetence at the Dallas hospital. They were clearly not prepared and had no support during this.

www.today.com...

Hospitals should train in everything they're going to come in contact with. Period. They're hospitals!

a reply to: paraphi

Yes, isolation wards seem obvious. I read somewhere here on ATS that there are only 19 beds in such units currently available. Do you know if this is correct?

originally posted by: bludragin
a reply to: paraphi

Yes, isolation wards seem obvious. I read somewhere here on ATS that there are only 19 beds in such units currently available. Do you know if this is correct?

Isolation units can be any room where patient can be segregated from other patients or staff. Critical care beds is 30-40 in large hospitals.

originally posted by: whatcomesnext130
Watch this interview from Dallas nurse Briana Aguirre with Matt Lauer. She describes the situation during Duncan's care and the incompetence at the Dallas hospital. They were clearly not prepared and had no support during this.

www.today.com...

Will do. Thanks for the link. I'm glad that the NNU is standing up for the healthcare workers in Dallas. They should all be royally pissed.

Yes and in ALL cases there should be cameras posted in every room where the gowning takes place, where the patients reside. This way if there are mistakes made we can learn from them.

With a level 4 virus there are always cameras in the decontamination and lab areas.

Edit to say that in all of the documentaries and papers concerning ebola in the labs, part of the process is stripping down including underwear before gowning up, this is something that has made me literally cringe every time I hear of healthcare workers simply "Gowning up"

originally posted by: antar
Yes and in ALL cases there should be cameras posted in every room where the gowning takes place, where the patients reside. This way if there are mistakes made we can learn from them.

With a level 4 virus there are always cameras in the decontamination and lab areas.

Edit to say that in all of the documentaries and papers concerning ebola in the labs, part of the process is stripping down including underwear before gowning up, this is something that has made me literally cringe every time I hear of healthcare workers simply "Gowning up"

And only a handful of hospitals have such units, yes? Think we will be building some more, pronto?

originally posted by: Biotech2024

originally posted by: bludragin
a reply to: paraphi

Yes, isolation wards seem obvious. I read somewhere here on ATS that there are only 19 beds in such units currently available. Do you know if this is correct?

Isolation units can be any room where patient can be segregated from other patients or staff. Critical care beds is 30-40 in large hospitals.

Antar writes, below: "With a level 4 virus there are always cameras in the decontamination and lab areas."
And only a few hospitals are equipped to handle level 4 viruses. Second infected nurse taken to Atlanta. Where Patient Zero and the first infected nurse should have gone, IMHO. Just sayin'.

If the CDC would have spent it's budget on it was supposed to be doing, instead things like unsafe playground equipment, binge drinking and guns, we would be well prepared for this.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Level 4 isolation units, hardly any hospital has those.

a reply to: Biotech2024

Why don't they have them? See my previous post. The people responsible for making sure that they have them dropped the ball.

Most healthcare systems try to stream resources where utility is most 95% of time. They rarely plan for the 5%. But now maybe federal money can be used to create regional level 4 isolation centers.

originally posted by: Biotech2024
Most healthcare systems try to stream resources where utility is most 95% of time. They rarely plan for the 5%. But now maybe federal money can be used to create regional level 4 isolation centers.

Let us hope this is the case. I do admit to feeling disappointed and angry that Obama would not approve banning flights, based on advisement from infectious control experts.