Reducing the Risk of Infection from Healthcare

Healthcare associated infections/Infections due to Health Care is an infection that the patient does not suffer upon admission to the hospital but rather after ± 72 hours of being in the premises.

Rumah saki should develop an approach to reduce the risk of health care-related infections. Reducing the Risk of Infection due to Health Care is one of the 6 (six) Patient Safety Goals in Hospitals.

Infection prevention and control is a challenge for practitioners in most health care settings, and the increased cost of tackling healthcare-related infections is a major concern for both patients and health care professionals.

The Onset of Infection

Infections are commonly found in all forms of health care including catheter-related urinary tract infections, blood stream infections and pneumonia (often linked to mechanical ventilation). The main point of eliminating this infection and other infections is proper hand hygiene.

Hand Hygiene

Internationally applicable hand hygiene guidelines can be obtained from WHO, health care facilities such as hospitals have a collaborative process to develop policies and/or procedures that adapt or adopt generally accepted hand hygiene guidelines for the implementation of these guidelines.

Activities Carried Out:

1. Health care facilities (hospitals) adopt or adapt the latest hand hygiene guidelines published and have been generally accepted from (WHO Patient Safety).
2. Health service facilities (hospitals) implement effective hand hygiene programs.
3. Policies and Procedures developed to direct the ongoing reduction of the risk of health care-related infections

Infection Prevention

Regular cleaning is essential to ensure that the hospital is very clean and completely clean of dust, oil and dirt. Keep in mind that about 90 percent of the visible impurities inevitably contain germs. There should be regular time to clean the walls, floors, beds, doors, windows, curtains, bathrooms, and medical devices that have been used many times.

Good air regulation is difficult in many health facilities. Try to use an air filter, especially for patients with low immune status or for patients who can spread diseases through the air. Rooms with good air regulation will reduce the risk of tuberculosis transmission more.

In addition, the hospital must build a water filter facility and maintain the cleanliness of the processing and filters to prevent the growth of bacteria. Water sterilization in hospitals with limited infrastructure can use solar heat.

Prevention by Improving Endurance

In the human body, in addition to having bacteria that are opportunistic pathogens, there are also mutualistic bacteria that help in the physiological processes of the body, and help the body's resistance against the invasion of pathogenic mechanical remains and maintain a balance among the population of commensal bodies in general, for example, what happens in the human digestive tract.

Knowledge of the immune mechanisms of healthy people who can control the body of opportunists needs to be thoroughly identified, so that it can be used in maintaining the body's resistance in people with severe diseases.

Prevention with Isolation Rooms

The spread of nosocomial infections can also be prevented by creating a separation of patients. Isolation rooms are indispensable, especially for diseases whose transmission is through the air, for example tuberculosis, and SARS, which results in severe contamination. Transmission involving viruses, for example DHF and HIV.

Usually, patients who have low resistance such as leukemia and immunosuppressant drug users also need to be isolated to avoid infection. But maintaining hand hygiene and food, health equipment inside the isolation room is also very important.

This isolation room should always be enclosed with air vents always heading out. It is recommended that one patient be in one isolation room, but when an extraordinary event occurs and the patient exceeds capacity, several patients in one room are okay as long as they have the same disease.

Berbagi :