Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), also known as “hospital acquired infections” are infections that people get while they are receiving health care for another condition. HAIs can happen in any healthcare facility, including hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, end-stage renal disease facilities, and long-term care facilities like nursing homes. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, or other, less common pathogens can cause HAIs.

Also known as nosocomial infections, healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) occur in all settings of care, including hospitals, surgical centers, ambulatory clinics, and long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. The common HAIs are staph & MRSA (flesh-eating bacteria), which can often lead to sepsis and even death if left untreated, or not properly treated quickly.

HAIs are a significant cause of severe illness and death — and they can have serious emotional, financial, and medical consequences too. At any given time, there are about 1 in 31 inpatients that have an infection related to hospital care. These infections lead to tens of thousands of deaths and cost the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars each year. It’s a very big deal and extremely challenging and taxing on the healthcare industry and the consumer public.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has identified the reduction of HAIs as an Agency Priority Goal. HHS is committed to reducing the national rate of HAIs.

HAIs are the most common complication of hospital care and are one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. They accounted for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year. The financial burden attributable to these infections is estimated at $28 to $33 billion in excess health care costs each year.

Patients who acquire infections from surgery spend, on average, an additional 6.5 days in the hospital, are five times more likely to be readmitted after discharge and twice as likely to die. Moreover, surgical patients who develop infections are 60 percent more likely to require admission to a hospital’s intensive care unit. Surgical infections are believed to account for up to ten billion dollars annually in healthcare expenditures.

How Do HAIs Even Spread?

You would think healthcare facilities are ultra-sterile, right? Well, no. They are breeding grounds for pathogens, and lots of them. Contaminated surfaces, insufficient hand washing and PPE, indwelling medical device use (such as central lines, catheters, and ventilators), and lack of protection from airborne pathogens are typically the most significant factors in the spread of HAIs. It’s typically the most susceptible patients that are affected most by these.

Which surfaces spread healthcare-associated infections?

Any surface can harbor microbes. These include environmental surfaces (flooring, countertops, handles, sinks, etc.), patient care items and medical devices (gurneys, monitors, IV pumps), and porous, soft surfaces (pillows, curtains, scrubs). Essentially, every surface can harbor microbes that can prove to be very harmful to patients’ health.

How are HAIs spread?

HAIs can spread quickly when healthcare workers, visitors, or patients touch a contaminated surface. If they do not know about it nor properly clean the affected area, they can then easily transmit the microbes to another person or onto themselves. Being in a healthcare facility, most everyone would assume surfaces that look clean are safe, however, this is almost not always the case.

In fact, an estimated 20-40% of healthcare-associated infections have been attributed to cross-infection via the hands of healthcare personnel who have become contaminated from direct contact with patients or because of touching a contaminated surface.

How many deaths are caused by HAIs?

Far too many and the death numbers are massive. According to the CDC, around 1.7 million patients will acquire at least one of these infections, and 99,000 will die annually. This is the equivalent of a 275-person passenger jet crashing to the ground every single day. That is a pretty insane figure to comprehend, but nonetheless, it’s terrifying.

The World Health Organization (WHO) expects antibiotic-resistant infections like staph and MRSA to be the leading cause of death by 2050.

Considering Vitastem Ultra to Reduce HAIs

Vitastem Ultra is a new and innovative, patent pending, FDA-registered topical antibiotic spray that uses a highly specialized mixture of ingredients, has created a transdermal drug delivery system that allows the active ingredient, bacitracin, 10x stronger and deeper than literally all of the other antibiotic products available in the market today. Vitastem effectively treats the skin condition and injects the patient’s skin cells with vitamin D3, or vitamin C. It is a very promising option for treating MRSA infections more effectively than other antibiotics.

Other than Vitastem Ultra, all antibiotics are based on what’s known as a chemical “mechanism to kill.” This means that the antibiotic slowly kills the bacteria by either applying (if topically) or absorbing (if orally) more of it over time. This can be effective, but it is slower to work. This also allows bacteria to evolve and develop resistance against the medicine, causing more issues for the patient.

Vitastem Ultra is a very different topical antibiotic. It uses both a physical and chemical mechanism to kill pathogens, where Vitastem Ultra’s major strength is dependent on the physical mechanism of killing.

In addition to these amazing healing benefits, Vitastem Ultra can help hospitals, nursing homes, and other places of care drastically reduce HAIs, if not nearly completely rid the occurrences of MRSA & staph infections when used to treat wounds & prevent infection.

If you work in healthcare and realize the importance of HAIs and reducing MRSA & staph infections in hospitals and nursing homes, then you should really consider looking more deeper into Vitastem Ultra as a go-to wound care treatment today.