Patients have a role in controlling infection
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
August 29, 2007
Patients can help protect themselves from hospital-acquired infections by following some simple rules, according to a Boston Globe article and slideshow.
The tips for patients and families include:
- Wash your hands when you enter or leave the patient's room
- Check that the hospital uses clippers instead of a razor to shave the patient before surgery
- Be sure staff members give antibiotic medication to the patient an hour before surgery
- Shower in the morning before surgery
- Be sure the skin around a central line is cleaned with chlorhexidine
- Ask whether all of the lines connected to the patient are still medically necessary
- Be sure to keep sick guests out of the patient's room
- Make sure staff members wash their hands and wear gloves when touching the patient in a way that could spread infection
- Make sure the patient's blood sugar levels are under control before surgery
- Stay warm before and after surgery
- Be sure staff members are cleaning the mouths of patients with ventillators
- Make sure patients with ventilators have their beds set at a 30-degree angle
