Managing the spread of disease and reducing the number of healthcare-spread infections are key concerns for all healthcare facilities. There are several factors in the environment of a healthcare setting that can facilitate the spread and development of infectious diseases. Everything from the doctors, nurses, and employees who work there, to the air in the building can be potential carriers of contamination.

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Thanks to this, it is more important than ever for hospitals to try and prevent the spread of infections. Here are some of the infection control measures all hospitals need to use in order to prevent and control the spread of infection:

Environmental Hygiene

Providing a safe, clean hospital environment for patients to receive the treatment they need is extremely important. Domestic employees working in a hospital should receive training in infection control.

Employee Hygiene

The single most important tool hospitals have to aid them in the prevention of spreading infections is to wash their hands thoroughly before and after caring for a patient. They should wash their hands using an alcohol-based sanitizer as this will help to kill any germs or bacteria.

Patient Hygiene

Hospitals need to include patients in the provision of good infection prevention measures. They can do this by encouraging and helping them to have good personal hygiene and handwashing.

Staff Training

Trained healthcare professionals will know how to prevent infections from spreading and will understand how to control the spread of any new infections that have been identified.

Understand the Chain of Infection

The healthcare industry has changed a lot over the last ten years. New infections are detected, and new vaccines and treatments are created. Although infection is unique from one person to the next, the chain of infection illuminates how infectious diseases spread in general and can help prevent them from spreading. When we understand how the chain of infection works, we can learn how to break it.

Antibiotic Control

Antibiotics are medicines that destroy the bacteria that cause infections. These drugs save thousands of people’s lives each year. However, germs such as MRSA can grow to be resistant to antibiotics, and the chances of resistance only increase when more antibiotics are used.

Antibiotics will always be essential in curing infections, however, because they have been used inappropriately in the past, there is an increasing risk that some types of bacteria will develop resistance to this type of medicine. This means that antibiotics will no longer work on certain types of bacteria.

Hospitals need to have strict antibiotic policies in place to regulate the use of antibiotics if they want to be able to stop the bacteria that are developing resistance.

Provide Support Services

Hospitals need to provide good quality support services alongside medical care. This includes things such as sterile medical equipment, laundry, cleaning, and waste management. All of these services are needed to help prevent the spread of infections.

Educate Patients and Their Families on Disease Prevention

In order to try and prevent infections from spreading, it’s important to educate patients and visitors on disease prevention. If an infection is identified, hospitals should inform individuals on what to expect.

Infection control and prevention measures aim to protect patients, their families, and hospital employees from acquiring an infection and to control the spread of a disease once it has been identified. From basic hygiene procedures to training employees in disease prevention, there are lots of things hospitals can do to prevent infections from spreading.