Health
Dirty job: Hospital staffs not very good at washing their hands of germs
Although washing hands is one of the single-most effective ways to prevent the spread of dangerous infections—ranging from pneumonia to MRSA, a life-threatening staph infection—in U.S. hospitals, hospital workers wash their hands only about 40 to 50 percent of the time, often because it’s inconvenient or they are overwhelmed by other tasks. New data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in 25 patients will battle at least one infection picked up in the hospital. In 2011, there were approximately 722,000 of these health care-associated infections nationwide and about 75,000 patients died.
It’s well-known that hand hygiene must be practiced far more frequently and effectively, yet many health care providers are in the habit of doing it sporadically or inadequately. There should not be any more excuses.
Dr. Don Goldmann, chief medical and scientific officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The CDC and World Health Organization provide guidelines for good hand hygiene, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach to changing bad habits. Anybody trained in medicine—any school kid, for that matter—knows that washing hands helps stop the spread of germs. But knowing doesn’t always translate into doing. Convenience is a big barrier: If sinks or antiseptic foam and gel dispensers aren’t readily accessible to medical staff, hand washing is easy to overlook in the midst of other responsibilities.
