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These websites were picked by the Health Care Examiner as useful resources.- National Institute of Health
- American Academy of Family Physicians
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Hospital Safety ratings: Leap Frog Group
- Safety and Health Topics
- Health Care Consumer Information
- American Nurse's Association
- Real Age: How to Live Young
- American Heart Association
- Federal Food and Drug Administration
- Health care is a business: where time is money
- Window witches: a protector for the doctor
- Hospitals: dangerous places for healthy people
- Prescription drugs: what you need to know
- Insurance rules: when you can do whatever you want
- Best hospitals: find one when you don't need one
- What to do when you go to the doctor
- How to get a living will: ultimate control
- Your hands are not clean if you haven't sung happy birthday
- Pharmacy friends
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Showing entries for Category: nurses
Hospitals: Dangerous places for healthy people
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All of us go to the hospital occasionally. Maybe we’re visiting a friend or relative, or worse, we’re the patient. Regardless of the reason, once you step into a hospital you have entered a dangerous place. Sure they smell like popcorn and people bring flowers and balloons and they look pretty safe, but there are billions of dangerous bugs there that would love to go home with you. No, not insects, germs. Statistics show that nearly one out of every 20 patients gets an infection during their hospital stay and these are not related to the reason they came to the hospital. That’s close to 2 million people a year. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 99,000 patients die each year because of hospital acquired infections. And we’re not even counting visitors and health care workers in this grim statistic!
Hospitals are actually germ factories where exotic bugs congregate among sick people and multiply around the clock. In spite of our best efforts to eradicate them, they still manage to make you their new best friend, whether you’re sick or not. That’s why those of us in health care hate to see babies and small children as visitors, their immune systems are weak and this makes them likely targets for some nasty bugs or they bring them in to infect patients who are susceptible.
How do you protect yourself? If you’re a patient, you or a close friend or relative should:- Make sure that anyone who touches you washes their hands before they make contact. That means doctors and nurses! Hospitals have gels and soap dispensers all over the place so there’s no excuse.
- Wash your own hands often or ask the nurse or aide to help you
- Watch what you touch. Catheters, IV tubing and bandages are taboo.
- Ask that the phone and call button be cleaned if you don't see it done regularly. They harbor germs and are less often cleaned.
- Tell your friends if they are sick to stay home. Hospitals are not good places to entertain. Do that once you go home and feel better.
If you’re the visitor, do the following avoid germ hitchhikers:
- Leave your children at home
- Call and stay home if you have a respiratory illness or aren't well.
- Make it brief: don't camp out. Your risk of infection increases the longer you stay.
- Wash your hands before you enter the room and when you leave.
- Change your clothes when you get home if you have stayed a long time. This prevents bugs from setting up shop in your house!
Next time we’ll talk about hand washing. Not a sexy topic to be sure, but one that could keep you from becoming a statistic.
Topics: nurses , hospitals , infections , hand washing , germs , health
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