How to Reduce the Spread of Bacteria in Your Medical Facility

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a real threat in healthcare facilities. It’s more crucial than ever to strategize plans for how to reduce the spread of bacteria. Here are a few ways that you can reduce the spread of bacteria in your medical facility:

1. Use the Utmost Caution When Caring for Patients

Obviously, spreading infectious diseases to a patient is to be avoided at all costs. It’s imperative that your healthcare staff has been properly trained and is employing best practices when caring for patients. The World Health Organization has put together this list of essential standards to help guide you:

• Wash hands after touching blood, secretions, excretions, and contaminated items, regardless of glove use. Always use gloves when touching mucous membranes and non-intact skin, and when touching blood and bodily fluids. 
• Wear eye protection and gowns during procedures that are likely to generate splashes or sprays of blood and bodily fluids.
• Before caring for a patient with reusable equipment, make sure that it has been appropriately cleaned.
• Ensure that your medical facility is adequately cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces. 
• Handle used linens carefully to avoid contact with skin and prevent the transfer of microorganisms to other patients/areas. 
• Use ventilation devices instead of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
• Handle sharps carefully to prevent injury.
• Isolate patients who contaminate the environment and pose a risk to other patients or staff.

2. Collect as Much Data on Healthcare-Acquired Infections as You Can

While hygiene is your top priority, you can’t control every aspect of your medical facility. So, it’s important that you’re keeping track of infections so that you can pinpoint the areas that need more work. Are central line-associated bloodstream infections the issue? Are you experiencing multiple cases of C. diff? Or urinary tract infections? For example, if your hospital has a high number of catheter-associated UTIs, then you can implement additional strategies like daily checks on patients who have a catheter to determine whether it can be removed.

Once you figure out where you’re going wrong, you can spend your time and energy on training and resources where they will have the most impact. Obviously, you shouldn’t ignore any aspect of your infection prevention strategy, but if you can find the areas of prevention that your healthcare facility struggles with, then you can more effectively prevent a larger number of HAIs. In addition to collecting and analyzing data on your own facility, make sure to keep track of the latest developments in infections and prevention strategies. 

3. Partner with Organizations That You Trust

It’s also important to assess what you’re bringing in from the outside. Can you rely on the vendors that you partner with to match your commitment to reducing the spread of bacteria?

Medical linen services are a great example. After use, sheets, towels, gowns and scrubs are among the most highly-contaminated objects in a hospital room. If your medical laundry partner isn’t thoroughly cleaning your textiles, potentially mixing in bacteria from other medical facilities, then they’re putting your medical business at risk. So, before choosing any vendor, do a thorough check on their business record. Do they have the proper certifications? Have they been involved in infection outbreaks in the past? How do other medical facilities rate their services?

Medico Helps Reduce the Spread of Bacteria

We provide quality medical linen and uniform services to medical facilities just like yours, meeting and exceeding all health standards for our industry. With accreditations like the Hygienically Clean Certification from TRSA, we’re setting a high bar for cleanliness and innovation. To learn more about how we can help you reduce the spread of bacteria through reliable and hygienic medical textiles, contact us today!