US lags on fighting germs in hospitals!
In yesterday's electronic edition of The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope examined an emerging front in the war on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Entitled The Doctor’s Hands Are Germ-Free. The Scrubs Too?, Parker-Pope's article presents the frightening possibility that some of the most deadly hospital infections may be getting a free ride on doctor's clothing, especially ties and white coats but also on scrubs.
The article is worth reading for the full scoop, but what I'd like to point out here is the startling gap in health codes that she reveals between the US and Europe, and how that could be needlessly endangering the lives of many.
In Denmark, where there has been an increased emphasis not only on handwashing, but also on "sterilization, screening and clothing control," the rate of drug-resistant staph infections was 1% of the total. In the US, where there has been no protocol similar to the EU-wide one informing Danish policy, the rate of drug-resistant staph infections is 50% of all such infections.
I find it incredibly concerning that the nation that trains many doctors around the world and that considers itself to be a leader in global medicine has not even managed to establish a basic germ policy addressing this problem.
What do you think? If you are in a medical profession, what is your experience in your country? What have you experienced as a patient? I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks about both this article and the topic, so please share!
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Comments (4)
Last year in Los Angeles there was a bonafide MRSA epidemic that affected thousands of people throughout the city, many of them my friends. My boyfriend got it, most probably from the multiple hospital stays that I had that year for surgeries on a broken leg. He had it for almost six months.
Staph was literally everywhere in LA - on handrails, door knobs and table tops. It was on elevator buttons and ATM keypads, grocery store counters and bus benches. Basically - everywhere you went.
What we found to be more shocking and profoundly scary was the ineffectiveness of the medical community to properly treat it. After going through round after round of antibiotic treatment, only to find that the strain was so resistant it could not be combated with even the most powerful oral antibiotics, my boyfriend was finally told by a new doctor that MRSA lives and seeds in the nose. He was given an antibiotic ointment that he had to swab inside his nose three times a day for weeks until it finally went away.
Staph is serious. It's incredibly painful and can have serious health consequences. If we had not actively advocated for better and more effective treatment, who knows what kind of complications my boyfriend could have experienced.
I'm glad this issue is coming to light. Given the incredible virility and resistance of the strain that we battled last year, I'm happy to see that the safety precautions of hospitals is being critically assessed. Hospitals should be places of refuge for the sick, not carriers of disease.
Posted by Sarah Mac | September 23, 2008 10:33 PM
Thank you for raising this issue. Many Americans think that US hospitals, many of which are newer than European ones, are cleaner. Old paint or old buildings are thought to be "dirty," when in fact the real "dirt" is microscopic and deadly. Old walls with dull paint, if they are sanitized, can be clean; all kinds of surfaces if not sanitized can be breeding grounds for deadly microbes. Standards and protocols are what make for sanitary hospitals, not decoration.
I received excellent care during and after surgery in a French hospital where the floors, walls, all surfaces were cleaned rigorously. The building was very old, but the staff followed strict procedures. Not only was the sanitation outstanding, but other aspects of patient care were superior. Procedures which I experienced as very uncomfortable in two hospitals in the US, were not painful in France. For one thing, the focus was on the patient not on how many procedures they could do in the shortest amount of time. Where health care is done by professionals who are not having to worry about profit, the care itself can be the most important thing.
I spoke with a member of the team of doctors in that hospital about the differences between their system and the US one. Those doctors are more like professors or employees who are salaried. They do not make more money for doing more surgery. Since they are not medical entrepreneurs but medical practitioners, their focus is on practicing good medicine, not making a buck. Nor do they begin their careers with fantastic amounts of academic debt to pay off. They do not get rich, but they make a good living, perform work that they are devoted to, and give excellent medical care.
This is another area where American "exceptionalism" does not conform to reality and where Americans are insular and ignorant of what others do. We need to look around at what works for others and see how to make things work for us in this area as in so many.
Posted by Nancy Vining Van Ness | September 24, 2008 9:48 AM
Nancy, thank you so much for your comments! I think you hit the point exactly when you said that the walls being old does not necessarily mean that the walls are dirty! I do think that Americans are being fooled by fancy decor and missing the essence of sanitation protocol...but then, as we have very little science education in this country, it is not surprising that patients here would be so easily misled!
I agree with you that a large part of our problem in America is the crushing debt that medical students are forced to incur. Somehow, the justification is always that doctors are going to make a fortune throughout their career. This is a terrible approach to public health!
I especially thank you for sharing your story. It is such a shame that more Americans have not travelled abroad to gain the sort of perspective that you have brought us.
Posted by MHahn | September 24, 2008 1:03 PM
Sarah, I just read your comments and was absolutely horrified! I think that Americans don't realized just how serious this infection is, how easily it is transmitted, and how impossible it is to destroy!
I had no idea that LA had suffered an epidemic of the proportions you describe, but your boyfriend's story is a perfect example of the risks we now all take everytime we even step into a hospital to visit someone. I think that many of us wrongly assume that we are only at risk for catching something if we are the patient, even if we are sitting in the same room and being exposed to the same germs. Your story is a frightening warning to all of us!
Posted by MHahn | September 24, 2008 1:08 PM