Lingering microbial contamination in hospitals contributes to the global concern of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). These infections not only affect all hospitals in the west, but they also adversely impact the clinical outcome of over 15% of the hospitalized patients in them. This reality positions microbial contamination as a harbor for hospital pathogens. Hence, there’s an urgent need to implement solutions to control pathogen spread and contamination. In this guide, you’ll learn how to keep healthcare facilities microbe free.
How to Keep Healthcare Facilities Microbe Free
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities need to adopt a multi-faceted approach to effectively prevent microbe-induced infections. Some of the measures include:
- Requiring healthcare staff to wash their hands appropriately.
- Taking isolation precautions for specific patients.
- Ensuring that healthcare workers wear gloves and special gowns when in rooms of specific patients.
- Admitted patients need to take a bath every day with a special antiseptic soap unless it adversely impacts their health. Research suggests that antiseptic soaps prove more effective than regular soaps in preventing infections.
- Maintain a caring hospital environment by keeping the facility tidy. Additionally, leverage high-quality cleaning products for cleaning.
- Make sure that the food for patients is prepared properly in hygienic settings. Also, ensure the food is served at correct temperatures to reduce the chances of food-borne illnesses.
- Special robots use ultraviolet light to disinfect surfaces. Use them to clean patients’ rooms after discharge.
- Regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces like bedrails, which often harbor microbe-induced infections.
- Examine medical procedures that pose risks of infection and find solutions to prevent them. For instance, infection risk increases with central venous catheters. Therefore, when those lines are put in, it’s important to devote full attention to following everything you know from research to reduce the risk.
Medical practitioners and staff can implement the aforementioned measures to prevent microbe contamination, but do patients have a role to play? Let’s find out:
What Role Can Patients Play to Keep Healthcare Facilities Microbe Free?
Patients certainly have a role to play. They should anticipate that the healthcare staff cleans their hands when they enter their room. They should know of risks of infections with certain procedures.
Conclusion
To sum it up, numerous potential pathogens can spread from hospital environments to patients. Additionally, it can contribute to the development of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Now that you understand how to keep healthcare facilities microbe free, implement the aforementioned tips. As long as both the healthcare staff and patients keep playing their respective roles, all hospitals should stay free from microbial contamination and associated infections.
While this guide can help you prevent microbe-related infections, if microbial contamination has already invaded your facility, reach out to Extreme Microbial Technologies and seek professional cleaning and decontamination services.