Infectious Disease Compendium

Infection Control

The purpose of Infection control is to prevent the spread of infection either to the health care worker (HCW) or to other patients, often using the HCW as the vector or both.

As such damn near any organism can be spread in the hospital.

Here are some concepts on Infection Control.

Hand hygiene. Before you examine the patient and after you examine the patient. Every time. Regardless. It is the single best way to prevent the spread of contagion. Want to be entertained? Pay attention to where your hands go, especially when you are alone. I mean ick. And watch the hands of other HCW's. Double ick.

It is remarkable what the alcohol foam does. When foam was first introduced into my hospitals infection rates fell by half and that was with at best 20% adherence.

When you walk out of a patients room you should feel comfortable licking any part of your body. If not, that area should have been covered or foamed.

Follow the sign on the door. Yes, I know you are a physician and the rules do not apply to you. Not. Do it. Infection control works best when the rules are followed. Every time. Yes, it's a pain. But as I have said before about medicine, if your day is not a total pain in the neck you are either doing it wrong or missing something important.

Infection control works best when you do not think about it. Because Murphy was an optimist (PubMed). Thinking about it and deciding for some reason not to follow the isolation policy and procedure will lead to making the wrong decision. I guarantee it.

I suspect that most people don't really think germs exist since they can't see them. Trust me. Germs exist.

Early in my career, I thought that infections were part of the price of medicine, but no longer. Zero infections is an achievable goal for many nosocomial infections.

Curious Cases

Relevant links to my Medscape blog

Out, damned spot! out, I say!

Epiphanies