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Three ways to reduce infections and protect your patients

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, March 24, 2004

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Make sure your facility has proper measures in place to control infections and keep your patients safe.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly two million patients per year contract an infection as a result of medical care. Protecting your patients and staff includes everything from disposing of needles properly to making sure staff members wash their hands on a regular basis.

Check out the following tips to control infections at your facility.

1. Reduce needlestick injuries
The CDC wants medical centers to eliminate needlestick injuries and reduce exposure to blood and potential bloodborne diseases. Provide staff with the safest equipment available, and make sure they use it properly, says Judene Bartley, MS, MPH, vice president of Epidemiology Consulting Services in Beverly Hills, MI.

Reduce unnecessary needle use. For example, look for opportunities to provide medicine without injecting the patient.

2. Find the best devices for your facility
Look at devices that come in contact with blood, such as syringes and phlebotomy needles, when deciding which infection-reduction tools to use. Base your decision on both safety and visual appeal because if people like the equipment, they are more likely to use it.

For example, nurses typically like clear syringes because they make it easy to provide the proper dose. Phlebotomists tend to like devices that are reliable, easy to use, and easy to throw away.

When choosing any new equipment, seek the opinion of someone who is well-respected in your organization. If he or she supports using the new equipment, other staff members are more likely to as well.

3. Wash germs away
Proper hand hygiene is one of the easiest and most effective ways medical staff can reduce infections, says Russell Olmsted, MPH, CIC, an epidemiologist with infection control services at St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, MI.

For microbes to move from healthcare providers to patients, they must be on the skin or in the immediate environment, still be active, and hand hygiene must either be inadequate or nonexistent. In addition, a moist environment tends to promote the spread of microbes more than dry conditions. For example, if someone is changing wet sheets, microbes are more likely to spread to the staff member's hands than if the sheets are dry.
 
When you can't get to a sink, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends using a waterless, alcohol-based antiseptic. Test several products and conduct a survey to see which product staff members prefer, says Olmsted.

While antiseptic rubs are good at killing germs, staff should not use them when their hands are visibly dirty. In those situations, they should wash with soap and water, dry off, and then apply the antiseptic rinse.

Waterless antiseptic rinses are not effective against spores. For example, if you suspect a patient might have anthrax, use soap and water to remove any spores you might pick up on your hands.

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