About Hospital-Acquired Infections
What are
hospital-acquired infections?
Sometimes when patients are admitted to the hospital, they can get
infections. These are called hospital-acquired infections. In the case
of C. difficile, this may mean that symptoms began 72 hours after
admission to the hospital; or that the infection was present at the time
of admission but was related to a previous admission to that hospital
within the last four weeks.
How does
Headwaters Health Care Centre control the spread of
infections?
Headwaters Health
Care Centre's Infection Prevention & Control Unit is responsible for
working with employees, visitors and patients to minimize
hospital-acquired infections. To control the spread of these infections,
we use routine practices such as: hand washing, environmental cleaning,
sterilization of equipment, single use of supplies, education and
additional isolation precautions.
How should the numbers be
used?
The public reporting of
hospital-acquired infection rates is not intended to serve as a measure
for hospitals to compare themselves against other organizations, or for
the public to use as a measure of where to seek care.
Some hospitals may
experience higher rates of infections due to their type (i.e. acute
care) and patient population (i.e. elderly). A high number of cases in a
one-month period does not necessarily mean that a hospital is “unsafe”;
a lower number of cases in a one-month period does not necessarily mean
that a hospital is “safe”. That is why it is vital that infection rates
be viewed in the context of other performance indicators.
Tracking and analyzing our
infection rates over time will provide us with helpful information that
we can use to make quality improvements in our organization. |
