Infection Control for Patient Safety in Health Care Facilities

Infection Control for Patient Safety in Health Care Facilities
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Introduction
Hospitals are supposed to be care center where patients receive quality healthcare and treatment for various ailments. However, the hospital setting also presents another challenge and potential for ground infection. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are diseases that a patient gets while undergoing treatment in a healthcare facility. These conditions present a threat to the safety of patients. Targeted initiatives have been put in place to reduce health care-associated infections. This paper examines infection control initiatives aimed at providing patient safety in hospitals. The paper will give an overview of the initiative, evaluate its effectiveness, strengths and weakens and finalize with the summary of the role nurses could play to ensure the initiative succeed.
Infection Control Initiative
Infection control initiative is an action by the federal government through the department of health and human services and is tasked with monitoring and rolling preventive measures aimed at reducing healthcare-associated infections. The department of health and human services through a select committee has a national action plan to prevent healthcare-associated infection through a roadmap that starts with a reduction in acute hospitals, then ambulatory surgical centers and then the program is rolled to long-term care facilities(Yokoa et al., 2014). The plans incorporate medicine practitioners, nurses, hospital administration and the general public through sensitization program. It also has matrices that are clearly spelled out for measuring progress and success. With the enactment of health Act of 2006, it became mandatory for health providers to have systems that minimize the risk of HAIs.
Reasons for the initiative
Hospital-associated infections pose a significant safety threat to patients all over the country. HAIs are responsible for the increase in morbidity and mortality rates. Statistics shows that one out of twenty-five patients in hospital has an infection that is healthcare related (Peng, Kurtz, & Johannes, 2006). The infection leads to loss of life, and the health care system spends billions of dollars in curing these diseases. To affected individuals, the infections can cause trauma, have a devastating financial, medical and emotional impact on their life and that of their families.
Additionally, controlling hospital associated infection is a mandatory requirement according to health ACT of 2006, it is mandatory for health care providers to provide mechanisms for reducing and controlling hospital related infections (Edwards et al., 2009). Furthermore exposure to HAIs may lead to anti-bacteria intolerance which may prove futile to treat. The intolerance is caused by continuous exposure to meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), meticillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and E.colis.
Strengths and limitations of the initiative
The action presents a multifaceted approach to prevention of HAIs. It has both vertical and horizontal approaches. The vertical approach uses AST model as a surveillance tool to monitor and identifies single pathogens that causes multidrug-resistant orga...