OK, so I AM a bitch

I have been in a rip-roaring, yelling, temper tantrum for weeks. Only, I was brought up Episcopalian so most of the time most of what you get is my lips pressed together tightly. Just now I found something we, you, all of us SHOULD bitch about (Azygos knows whereof he speaks):

For those of you who find themselves in a hospital as a patient or with a family member, never be afraid to ask a staff member to wash their hands before touching you or your loved one. It could literally mean you or your loved ones life. If they tell you they washed their hands at the nurse’s station, it’s your call whether to ask them to do it again. I would probably unobtrusively follow them out of the room and see if they wash their hands at the nurses station. If they don’t it’s time to call the manager and the infection control nurse and raise a stink.

Comments

[Brian]

Too right, washing will stop that nasty bug MRSA dead.

[joyce]

I concur!!!
I also work in a medical facility.. a considered upscale medical facility at that. Now my job does not entail direct contact with our hospital patients but I do often deal with their family members. I also speak with and direct people who are using the lab and/or radiology facilities. Or are checking in for surgery.

I've had people try to hand me their urine samples or throat cultures. Not to mention just the average coughing and sneezing etc. that constantly goes on around me.
Our public (and employee) restrooms are quite often embarrassingly filthy.
Our housekeeping department is understaffed and overworked. They will adequately clean a restroom only to have it reported (and appropriately so) as filthy an hour or two later.

As a result.. I always feel that alota nasty germs are wandering freely and unchecked through these hospital hallways.
I imagine thriving microscopic communities happily growing and flourishing on stairway handrails and elevator buttons.

So of course the hospital workers' cleanliness should be scrutinized but I also think that all visitors should be urged to wash their hands as well before hugging or touching their "infirmed" loved ones.

Universal precautions! Just makes sense!!!

[Stormwind]

Synchronistic.
I just did a great deal of research for the non-profit I work for, looking for info about MRSA and VRE and guidelines for staff. (We see clients in many locations, as well as have campuses and day programs with clients). Effective handwashing is still the best first line defense.

[azygos]

Joyce,

Your point is well taken. I can't tell you how many times I have wacthed a mother change a diaper and reach right into the diaper bag and grab some chips and a soda without washing their hands.

Azygos

[liZ]

I am a culprit. I've learned to wash a lot while cooking, and if I am around kids (those danged infection agents) but, groom the horse, then eat? Sure. Of course, there aren't too many horse-to-people diseases.

I don't care for the waterless hand washes--sanitizers--but I do use diaper-wipe type things.

[Theo]

Nah -- it's soap and water, second best only to industrial strength disinfectants.

[Ennis]

Whoops -- that was me, Theo is an in-joke handle I use when commenting on a friend's blog.

[John Wilkins]

I agree. Wash hands 5x perday. It's up there with flossing, eating vegetables and driving awake. I'm in the hospital a lot, and I keep a little sanitizer bottle in the sacristy, my car, at the front door and in my office. It's not an obsession - only after reading a lot did I get to that point.

[liZ]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040804.winfec20804/BNStory/National/

"Dr. Jacques Pepin says cases of Clostridium difficile at University Hospital in Sherbrooke have been steadily increasing. And the incidence among those most vulnerable to the disease — patients aged 65 and older — jumped 10-fold between 1991 and the end of 2003.

The infection has been blamed for killing 54 patients in 2003 and another 46 in the first six months of this year at the 683-bed hospital, said Dr. Pepin, lead author of a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal."