Hey Everyone. Does your institution have any sort of metric or reporting mechanism for assumed healthcare or hospital acquired infections?
I'm just looking into this problem and really would appreciate any sort of guidance, even if it is general.
I understand that notable outbreaks and certain diagnoses would result in some notifications to state or other agencies in the interest of public health, but what about relatively "normal" pathogens that might be trending in such a way to indicate hospital transmission? Is this more of a clinician task? or the diagnosing labs might notice this?
Thanks for any input.
I know there has been a huge discussion about whether or not rate of infection or number of cases matters. People keep saying 'what matters is the number is hospitalized/ICU cases, not number of infections!' Well, guess what? As the rate of infection rises, so do the chances of your ward and ICU nurses getting sick. Your surgeon getting sick. Your respiratory therapist getting sick. Without nursing and allied health staff things can't function. There are a very limited number of ICU nurses and RTs and we are dropping like flies. And this isn't only happening here. It is happening in every single ICU in this province. Want to know what happens next? Patient care is affected, the 'bare minimum' is done because we are stretched beyond belief, things will get missed, patients will suffer. Your health care system will collapse. So no, maybe there aren't 35 patients in ICU, but there are still other very sick people filling up our ICUs, without the staff to care for them. We are struggling. We need you all to respect public health measures. I don't think I can go another day of crying on my way into work, crying on my breaks, and crying when I get home. I miss my family too.
