Nosocomial infection: The challenging part of the quality care

 

Infection from the hospital premises during hospital stay or visit is considered as a hospital acquired infection. Nosocomial infection is the medical term which is used for hospital acquired infection. The word "nosocomial" is made up of two Greek words. The prefix "noso-" comes from "nosus" meaning disease and "-comial" comes from "komeion" meaning to take care of. Nosocomial could therefore refer to any affliction acquired by a patient while under medical supervision. It now refers more narrowly to a hospital-acquired infection.

The most important parameter of hospital is nosocomial infection rate. This rate decides the quality of services provided by the hospital authorities. We know that this hallmark metric of quality do not just reveal a number but the essence of the preventive care by the hospital itself.

To serve the biggest population while controlling the infections all around the premises is the challenging work in India, especially in government hospitals which are overburdened by the patients and lack of staff members who can look all these. It is said that you may enter into the government hospital with one disease and leave with multiple. The dangerous things are already there where we go to cure ourselves. Cleanliness, sterilization, precautions while medical treatments all count this nosocomial infection parameter.

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Most of the infections are spread through surgical wounds, breastfeeding without proper cleanliness of mother's breast after the labour, careless catheter insertion, improper care of injection sites and the common washrooms in general wards. These are the main sources of infection though many other micro care should be taken other than above points. 

The infections may be bacterial, fungal, viral and sometimes by paracites. Here the most dangerous infection can be the bacterial because bacteria in hospital premises are the most powerful superbugs than the outer world. The usage of antibiotics in the hospitals make them sound enough to sustain them in the premises. So the hospitals are the predominant source of  antibiotic resistance. Hospital staffs are most prone to this type of infections as they attend all the infectious patients. They should be vaccinated for some vaccine preventable infections like tetanus, hepatitis etc.

We are not going to discuss the microorganisms type and their specifications but we can definitely think about the latest virus which has the most transmission rate even outside the hospitals. Because you don't need to get hospitalized for receiving this Covid19 infection. All you need is just enter into the hospital and pass through the surfaces from where all other patients have been go through. In case of Covid19 even a stethoscope can be a carrier of the infection which is used the same for all the patients. This Corona virus has put us on the edge of those challenges which we couldn't handle even for normal bacterial infections. The era of Covid19 is challenging the hospitals to survive from this nosocomial infection. Just imagine a building full of bio bombs and you have to enter into it daily. The hospital staffs daily go through this truth and try to combat it with precuations.

The current threat of COVID-19 not only affects healthcare workers on the frontline but also increases exposure to their family members. Because of this, many healthcare providers opt to isolate themselves from their families after work, staying in their garage or basement, or renting a hotel room or apartment to avoid spreading the virus from the hospital setting. However, the consequences of these protective measures and physical distancing policies are detrimental to their mental health.

So the task to eliminate the nosocomial infection is near to impossible in government hospital settings of India as they are combating many other serious problems simultaneously and the priority for the reduction of the hospital acquired infection is far away. Let's hope that we'll first combat all the problems who stands before the control of nosocomial infection.

Final Funda: In a minor pre surgical investigation a relative of mine was found diabetic. That relative blammed the hospital to make him diabetic. I just calmed him down by assuring that diabetes is not a hospital acquired infection, even not an infection.