Hospital Acquired Infection Prevention: Better Healthcare Delivery

A hospital acquired infection is an infection that is picked up from a healthcare facility. It can be spread within hospitals and other clinical settings. These infections are caused due to microorganisms, which originate from a hospital environment, staff or other patients. The most common infections are urinary tract, upper-respiratory infections (pneumonia), and surgical wound infections. Infections that become clinically visible after 48 hours of hospitalization are considered hospital-acquired.

Susceptibility to infections in a hospital:

Patientsin the hospital are often at the risk of suffering hospital acquired infections. The populations that are more susceptibleto such infections include:

• Premature babies and sick children
• Elderly and frail
• Patientswith chronic medical conditions (e.g. diabetes)
• Persons having compromised immunity 

Repercussions of hospital acquired infections:

Micro organisms including fungi and bacteria are among the major causes behind infections in a hospital setting that contribute to about 99,000 deaths each year.

Some of the consequences of to such infections include:

• Prolongedsuffering for the patient
• Longer hospital stays
• Longer recovery time
• Mounting costs associated with longer stay in hospital and prolonged recovery time

Causes of health acquired infections:

Infection is spread to the susceptible patient in the clinical setting in various ways such as:

-          Contact with healthcare providers

-          Contaminated equipment

-          Infected air droplets

-          Indwelling catheters

-          Infected food, water or medications

Measures to reduce hospital acquired infections:

The infection can be controlled by following the appropriate protocols as follows:

• Rigorous hospital infection control procedure and policies
• Frequent hand hygiene measure by all the hospital staff and patients
• Cautious use of antibiotic medication
• Use of Personal protective equipment
• Isolation of infectious patients