Hand Hygiene issues at hospitals give rise to Sepsis
Pune, May 11, 2018: World Health organization (WHO) recently observed World Hand Hygiene day. Poor hand hygiene conditions in hospitals can lead to Sepsis, especially during healthcare delivery in critical units in hospitals.
Dr Nita K. Munshi, Director – Laboratory at Ruby hall Clinic , Pune is of the view that it is imperative that warning signs like fever and high heart rate, in patients are taken seriously and state of the art care is initiated early to avoid multi-organ failure which is globally a major cause of death by infection.
According to George Institute of Global Health, Sepsis in India kills more people than breast or prostate cancer combined. The rising incidence of sepsis in India is owing to poor hospital hygiene conditions and low rate of adherence to hand hygiene guidelines by the hospital staff. Dr Munshi says “In a developing country like India strengthening of basic care and preventive strategies are thus, extremely important. Furthermore, owing to an increased length of stay and antibiotic regimen, there is considerable medical resource utilization leading to economic burden, as most of the patients currently pay out of pocket. This could limit the lower socioeconomic strata to suffer from financial toxicity and catastrophic expenditure”
She adds “ At Ruby Clinic, we lay a lot of stress on hand hygiene in all areas of the hospital , especially critical care & for high risk patients. We have many activities around the fear to sensitize staff as well as patients & relatives on the importance of hang hygiene & health of the patient.”
Sepsis in patients leads to longer stay in hospitals and thus increased costs of treatments. With the recent declaration of National Health Protection Scheme, announced by Government of India, this landscape is expected to improve. Furthermore, optimal hand hygiene practices which play a pivotal role in reducing sepsis risk must be inculcated among the healthcare workers to pave a way for panacea from sepsis in all patients.
