About 1 in every 25 patients seeking treatment at hospitals acquired an infection there in 2011. [s]WCVB[/s] reports that a new study in the [s]New England Journal of Medicine[/s] found that patients acquired some 721,800 infections at hospitals that year. The [b]US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention[/b] says of those infected, about 75,000 died – although the study did not investigate how often an infection actually caused or contributed to the patient's death. Pneumonia and surgical-site infections were the most common types of infection – each accounting for about 22% of all infections – followed by gastrointestinal infections such as Clostridium difficile, urinary tract infections and infections of the bloodstream. The study does, however, show progress from past estimates – in 2002, there were an estimated 1.7m health care-associated infections and 155,668 infected-patient deaths. In 98,987 of those deaths, clinicians said the patient's infection actually caused or contributed to death.
[i]With germs from many patients coming into contact with stethoscopes each day[/i], a study in the [s]Mayo Clinic Proceedings[/s], suggests the stethoscope should be subject to the same sanitary procedures as doctors’ hands, reports [s]USA Today[/s]. [b]Didier Pittet[/b], director of the Infection Control Programme at [b]University of Geneva Hospital[/b] and lead author, said he hopes the findings will put things in motion for stethoscope sanitation to not be just a recommendation but a standard.
[i]Leaving a sponge in a patient is the kind of avoidable medical nightmare[/i] that health-care quality experts consider a never-event – that is, it should never happen. Current counting methods, however, ‘are prone to human error.’ [s]Business Week[/s] reports that medical device maker [b]Stryker[/b] is betting on technology that will help improve the counts. It has acquired [b]Patient Safety Technologies[/b], which makes a system of bar-coded sponges and electronic counters that will read the codes even on a sponge soaked in blood.
[link url=http://www.wcvb.com/health/1-in-25-patients-gets-infection-in-hospital/25173938#!BB3r0]Full WCVB report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1306801?query=featured_home]NEMJ abstract only[/link]
[link url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/28/stethoscopes-could-spread-germs/5867597]Full USA Today report[/link]
[link url=http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0025-6196/PIIS0025619614000706.pdf]Mayo Clinic Proceedings full report[/link]