The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls out to hospitals and medical facilities to step up and improve their notification lines, should one need to transfer patients with confirmed or suspected superbug infections.
The germs that do not react to antibiotics designed to combat them are increasing in number. Many factors are being looked at as the cause of such dismaying reality in the healthcare industry. Lack of implementation of infection control actions and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics are just some of the things that can help aggravate the problems of drug resistance and cause fatal cases of diarrhea.
According to the CDC, even if one medical facility is obediently following all the necessary infection control measures, the risk will still rise if patients are transferred to another hospital that do not imbibe extensive infection control protocols. The spread of the germs continues and more and more people become affected. With this, it is recommended that healthcare facilities coordinate and cooperate to reduce the risk of the patients. Prompt action to connect infection control preventive measures across the different public healthcare institutions and authorities are essential.
The CDC recommends the heads and administrators of medical facilities to devise plans to timely and efficiently notify facilities where patients with superbug infections are going to be transferred, polish infection control protocols, obtain leadership commitment to participate in local antibiotic-resistance and healthcare-associated infection prevention activities, collaborate with public health offices to report information about antibiotic resistance and ensure that medical personnel are given access to laboratory screenings for superbug infections.
In the US, germs that do not respond to antibiotic treatments cause two million illnesses and approximately 23,000 mortalities at the very least every year. If superbug infections are prevented and prescription of antibiotics is enhanced, about 37,000 lives may be saved in a span of five years.
"If you're a hospital doing a great job but the hospital down the street isn't, your patients are at risk," says Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director in a phone interview with reporters. "Facilities that go it alone can't protect their own patients."
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