Patients leaving hospitals with superbugs on their hands

Few healthcare facilities make patient hand-washing a priority


Researchers have found that almost 1 in 4 adults who left the hospital had on their hands a superbug: a virus, bacteria or another kind of microbe that resists multiple kinds of medicine, according to an article on the NPR website.

Conventional wisdom has long believed that healthcare facility staff who go from patient to patient are most likely to transmit germs. Few facilities make patient hand-washing a priority

"One of the main strategies on hand hygiene is to make it easy to wash hands," Leah Binder, president of the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization that grades hospitals on patient safety. 

"Most hospitals have either sinks or dispensers near the door of every room, so that it's very easy for a provider walking in to immediately wash their hands. Do we make it easy for patients to wash their hands? I doubt it."

Read the article.

 

 



March 24, 2016


Topic Area: Interior Design


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