Hand Washing: Time Well Spent
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page HE05
One morning on hospital rounds, I saw a physician colleague enter the intensive care unit where a patient lay intubated and sedated. With his hands unwashed and ungloved, the physician palpated the patient's abdomen, scratched his own head and then placed his stethoscope on the patient's chest to listen to his heart. Then he walked to the nurses station, rubbed his nose and entered a note in the patient's chart.
There was nothing unusual about this. Not washing hands scrupulously remains common practice for professionals at most hospitals, even though abundant research shows that it controls outbreaks of infectious disease, reduces transmission of resistant organisms and cuts infection rates among hospitalized patients. (continued)
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page HE05
One morning on hospital rounds, I saw a physician colleague enter the intensive care unit where a patient lay intubated and sedated. With his hands unwashed and ungloved, the physician palpated the patient's abdomen, scratched his own head and then placed his stethoscope on the patient's chest to listen to his heart. Then he walked to the nurses station, rubbed his nose and entered a note in the patient's chart.
There was nothing unusual about this. Not washing hands scrupulously remains common practice for professionals at most hospitals, even though abundant research shows that it controls outbreaks of infectious disease, reduces transmission of resistant organisms and cuts infection rates among hospitalized patients. (continued)
topics:
News and Politics,
Health,
Science,
Germs
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- MeganMcKenzie
- added this
- added August 05, 2008
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God, that's gross. Because of the recognisedly poor standards of hygiene in British hospitals and things like MRSA, hospitals over here have hand sanitiser dispensers everywhere, for everyone to use, staff, patients and visitors. Do you have that in the US?
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- LindseyIndigo
- 5 months ago
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My wife had surgery this past year and I watched how few gloved up or washed... no wonder she is becoming germ phobic after working in a public facility for as long as she has.
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