It is true that within a health care facility infection can spread from contaminated instruments, materials and improper disposal, or even from the staff and visitors. But the fact remains that the patients are the single largest factor from which infection spreads and are also the most vulnerable when it comes to getting affected by such infection due to their medical condition and generally weakened immunity systems. In such a situation managing patients in a health care set up assumes extreme importance to check the spread of infection.
The following 4 points will help in better management of the patients for ensuring infection control.
• Proper Placement: Patients must not be accommodated randomly just to fill in the 'gaps'. Remember that placement of a patient is very important in any hospital to reduce the chances of spreading infections. Patient placement in a general ward with plenty of beds is crucial, and any patient with a highly contagious disease must never be placed in the center of other patients as the susceptibility of contracting diseases increases greatly.
• Spacing: In addition to patient placement the spacing between beds is equally important. Having the beds too close to each other makes it difficult to accommodate medical equipment and also hinders movement and working of the health care staff, but more importantly in increases the risk of spreading of diseases through direct or even indirect contact, and also makes the patients more vulnerable to cross-contamination. Thus proper spacing is important for infection control, with the ideal distance being between 1 to 2 meters.
• Separate Rooms: Single rooms are the best options to lower the risk of spreading diseases as the contact is limited to health care personnel who are well covered by suitable personal protective equipment. However, if sufficient single rooms are not available then patients may share a room, but you must ensure that patients with the similar infection and source organism are kept together. Such rooms may also be marked accordingly to differentiate them from other rooms so that such areas are accessed only by minimal people. But whether the room is occupied by a single patient or shared, there must be proper toilet and hand washing facilities attached to the room itself.
• Transporting Patients: Movement of patients within the hospital must be minimized as much as possible to avoid the risk of spreading infection to the other areas of the facility. However at times transporting the patient is unavoidable whether it is to a surgery room or for any other tests and treatments. In such cases sufficient measures must be taken to avoid transmission risks by covering up the patient well and also placing face masks for particular diseases, while contact with other surfaces must also be minimal. And needless to say the workers moving the patient must have on the proper gear.
As you can see a few careful and thoughtful tips while managing patients in a health care facility can help in curtailing infection risks and as such should be treated as a method of infection control.
For more information, please visit our infection control website.
