Health care-associated infections (HCAI) are infections that occur while patients are being cared for in a hospital or health care facility. Also known as nosocomial or hospital infections, HCAIs infect hundreds of millions of people, patients and caretakers, throughout the world every year. Instances of HCAIs are even more frequent in low and middle-income areas.
According to the World Health Organization, health care-associated infections have a number of negative consequences, including:
- Longer hospital stays
- Long-term disabilities
- Additional costs for health care facilities
- Unnecessary deaths
- Higher costs for patients and their families
- Increased resistance to antimicrobials
While HCAIs are very common occurrences in institutions throughout the world, the true impact of these infections is unknown as many institutions have trouble gathering and maintaining reliable data on the topic.
Unfortunately, there are no countries or institutions that have been able to solve the problem of health care-associated infections. Even though the urgency of this problem is recognized throughout the world, it is a very difficult problem to eradicate. However, there are a number of steps you can take to significantly limit the issues caused by these infections in your facility.
Basic measures that should be taken to prevent infections, such as hand washing, can be very effective, low-cost methods of reducing HCAIs. However, these methods rely on staff accountability to be effective.
As outlined by WHO Clean Care is Safer Care, the primary methods of health care-associated infections prevention are:
- Identify local determinants of HCAIs
- Make sure that core components of infection control are in place
- Improve staff accountability
- Improve surveillance and reporting of HCAIs
- Implement standard precautions
- Research the involvement of patients and their families in HCAI reporting
- Meet minimum requirements in terms of facilities and resources dedicated to HCAI surveillance
By ensuring that your facility meets these standards, you can contribute towards the worldwide effort of reducing the number of people affects by health care-associated infections every year.
Additionally, in order to make a more concentrated effort to reduce HCAIs in your facility, you should consider utilizing the services offered by a professional janitorial service.
Commercial cleaning companies are able to reduce the presence of health care-associated infections in health care facilities by ensuring cleanliness through the combination of their expertise with the use of high-quality cleaning products and equipment.
Companies like BRAVO! provide a number of services to help keep your facility clean and sanitary. BRAVO! follows strict guidelines set up by their We Care, We are Clean, Share our Pride campaign. By following these guidelines, and by utilizing improvement inspectors, BRAVO! is able to ensure that your facility is kept sanitary. For a full list of services, visit our website.
Health care-associated infections affect a significant number of patients and staff at hospitals throughout the world every year. In addition to the obvious adverse health effects, HCAIs can also cause significant financial burdens for affected facilities.
If you are interested in employing the services of a professional cleaning company to ease the burdens caused by health care-associated infections on your facility, feel free to contact us.