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Nosocomial Infections

Nosocomial Infections. Stacy Heim Barbara Lowell Jerilyn Scott. What are Nosocomial Infections?.

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Nosocomial Infections

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  1. Nosocomial Infections Stacy Heim Barbara Lowell Jerilyn Scott

  2. What are Nosocomial Infections? • Nosocomial Infections are infections that first appear three days after a patient is admitted into a hospital or other health care facility (Odle, Gale, 2006). They are hospital acquired, meaning the patient did not have this infection prior to being admitted.

  3. Nosocomial Infections About 5-10 % of patients admitted to hospitals in the U.S. develop nosocomial infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 2 million patients develop hospital-acquired infections each year (Odle, Gale, 2006). In order to prevent and decrease these statistics, health care facilities need to ask themselves these questions:  Who is at risk?  What are the causes?  What infections are present?  How do we treat these patients?  How can these infections be prevented?

  4. Who is at risk? • Nosocomial infections typically affect patients who are immunocomprimised. Reasons for this may be due to: • Age • Underlying diseases • Medical or surgical treatments • (Robert A. Weinstein, 1998)

  5. Who is at risk? Age Young children have a much less developed immune system than that of older children and adults. Also immunocompetence declines with age; that is, as people age, the immune system begins to lose some of its functions and cannot respond as quickly or as efficiently to stimuli (Deborah B. Whitman, 1999). Underlying Diseases A patient with any other underlying condition is immunocomprimised. Because of the disease, their immune system decreases in function. Medical or Surgical treatments Patients who have had surgery or are in the ICU have a greater risk due to a weakened immune system because of the invasive procedures from surgery.

  6. Although these at-risk patients are at an advantage of obtaining a nosocomial infection, anyone admitted in a hospital can be at risk. There fore, health care centers must treat everyone as having a potential risk of acquiring them.

  7. What are the causes of nosocomial infections? In order to properly treat and prevent hospital acquired infections, we need to know what causes them. To start, we know that these infections are caused by the following microorganisms that may already be present in the body or come from other sources in the hospital: Bacteria Viruses Fungi Parasites (Odle, Gale, 2006)

  8. Causes: The hospital environment • The shift of surgical care to outpatient centers leaves the sickest patients in the hospital. This compares the hospital to one large Intensive Care Unit resulting in increasingly immunocomprimised patients left in hospitals (Robert A. Weinstein, 1998). • The use of antibiotics and anti-microbial soaps have created a reservoir of resistant strains of microorganisms (Robert A. Weinstein, 1998). • Contaminated hospital equipment, beds, and other supplies make the spread of these infections much more amplified. • Infections can also be transmitted through the air from infectious agents that become airborne(Jones, Frey, 2006).

  9. Causes: Hospital Procedures Any type of invasive procedure can expose a patient to the possibility of infection. Some include: • Urinary bladder catheterizations • Respiratory procedures • Surgery and wounds • Intravenous procedures (IV) (Odle, Gale, 2006)

  10. Causes: Patients and Hospital Personnel Many hospital personnel, and patients, fail to follow infection control, such as hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and other means of person to person spread or contact. Also, due to the rush of crisis care, asepsis can be overlooked. (Robert A. Weinstein, 1998)

  11. Bibliography • Deborah B. Whitman, M. (1999, March). The Immunology of Aging. Retrieved November 19, 2009, from ProQuest: http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/archives/immune-aging.php • Frey, C. L. (2006). Infection Control. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. , Vol. 3. 3rd ed. p2005-2009. • Odle, T. R. (Gale, 2006). Hospital-Acquired Infections. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. , Vol. 3. 3rd ed. p1850-1853. • Robert A. Weinstein, C. C. (1998, July-September). Nosocomial Infection Update Volume 4 Number 3. Retrieved 29 2009, October , from Emerging Infectious Diseases: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no3/weinstein.htm

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