Clean Hands are Healing Hands
It cannot be emphasized enough how important hand hygiene is to quality healthcare.
In our last post we spoke about the 99,000 people who die every year from healthcare associated infections. Failure to clean one's hands before and after patient care is usually at the center of most of these cases.
Patients and their families must speak up and demand that doctors and nurses stop and wash their hands prior to examining them or performing other procedures. Infections caused by staph and clostridium difficile are rampant in our hospitals - yet usually preventable if hospital staff, visitors and yes, even patients, wash their hands. It sounds obsessive but the problem is too serious to be taken lightly.
Gloves are not a substitute for cleaning one's hands. Hands must be cleaned prior to and after wearing gloves. We all learned to wash our hands prior to eating and after using the bathroom, yet our healthcare workers must be reminded of this fact in America's hospitals.
Do not let anyone touch you without first cleaning their hands...Your life depends on it!
In our last post we spoke about the 99,000 people who die every year from healthcare associated infections. Failure to clean one's hands before and after patient care is usually at the center of most of these cases.
Patients and their families must speak up and demand that doctors and nurses stop and wash their hands prior to examining them or performing other procedures. Infections caused by staph and clostridium difficile are rampant in our hospitals - yet usually preventable if hospital staff, visitors and yes, even patients, wash their hands. It sounds obsessive but the problem is too serious to be taken lightly.
Gloves are not a substitute for cleaning one's hands. Hands must be cleaned prior to and after wearing gloves. We all learned to wash our hands prior to eating and after using the bathroom, yet our healthcare workers must be reminded of this fact in America's hospitals.
Do not let anyone touch you without first cleaning their hands...Your life depends on it!
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