Apparently my visceral dislike for medical facilities isn't entirely unwarranted (HT: The Renaissance Biologist):
Some medical personnel wear the same unlaundered uniforms to work day after day... 65% of medical personnel confess they change their lab coat less than once a week, though they know it's contaminated. Fifteen percent admit they change it less than once a month. Superbugs such as staph can live on these polyester coats for up to 56 days.
5 comments:
Thanks! "Dretful scorn" is a very appropriate label.
My husband has been repeatedly frustrated by the local hospital when he visits certain members who have been "isolated" because of concern over hard to fight infections.
By "isolate" I mean that they make him wear the completely wrong and inadequate mask and gown for his protection. That's the extent of what they do. They still put house someone else in the room, and keep the door open into the hall and nurses station at all times, and the nurses don't bother with gown and mask, even when the concern is over such things as resistant TB
So I shouldn't feel like the standards here are any less than there? Nice to know. ;)
Stories like this just make me sad - the fact that this kind of stuff happens frequently means that we've got a lot of cost-effective measures we can take to improve health care and to reduce costs.
In the last decade there has been a pretty successful campaign to reduce deaths by getting healthcare workers to wash their hands. Why this campaign was necessary in the 21st century is beyond me.
We need to really shift our focus away from expensive "miracle" treatments of dubious merit and systematically improve the simple, institutional stuff. Handwashing, records accuracy, hygiene, and infection prevention still have very much room for improvement. As that campaign achieves successes, THEN we can shift focus back to improving those $20k/month cancer treatments.
I've always thought that a hospital was a good place to get sick or die...however, I'm STILL thankful for American Medicine (until the government destroys it).
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