At every hospital around the world, patient safety is the number one priority. And rightfully so. But it’s easier said than done. Threats to patient safety are daily occurrences—and many of them are lurking in rooms, hallways, and on surfaces, waiting to infect susceptible and vulnerable patients. CDC data states that 1 in 25 patients acquire a Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) during their hospital care. Of these, 75,000 are fatal.
To reduce the threat of infection among patients, staff, and reduce financial risk, hospitals should prioritize their infection prevention plan across all departments and implement IP procedures that are enforced and followed by every member of every department.
How to Prioritize IP Procedures
Begin with simple, cost-effective strategies that your entire team can take part in, like hand hygiene, cleaning instruments, tables and surfaces. Ensure your environmental services team follows a strict patient room discharge cleaning procedure. But to ensure the best defense against HAIs, these should be part of a bundled approach that incorporates other IP strategies, including utilizing a UVC system.
As a key component of your IP plan, your UVC system uses UV light to kill dangerous microorganisms. Select a UVC system that automatically captures and reports disinfection data, and measures actual UVC dosage delivered to the targeted areas using multiple sensors throughout the room vs. just using time-based UVC exposure. UVC systems can be deployed throughout your entire hospital, especially high-impact ERs and busy patient rooms.
Why Every Medical Department Should Prioritize Infection Control
Learn more in our new whitepaper about how your hospital or medical center can prioritize infection control and why not prioritizing can pose health and financial risks.