Q. Yesterday my next-door neighbor (a nurse in our local monster-sized hospital) vented aggressively about doctors she witnesses moving from patient to patient without washing their hands or wearing gloves. According to her, MRSA and C. diff infections are rampant at this hospital.
When nurses have suggested handwashing or gloves to these doctors, there have been disciplinary comments placed in their personnel records. I had to ask her to repeat what she said because I found it almost incomprehensible.
A. We find it as perplexing as you do. Public health authorities are exhorting everyone (doctors, nurses and patients) to wash hands regularly and thoroughly, especially as we enter cold and flu season.
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and C. diff (Clostridium difficile) are potentially life-threatening infections and require extreme measures to eradicate from a hospital. Hand washing is an essential first step.
Not only should doctors, nurses and other health care providers wash their hands scrupulously between patients, patients and their visitors should also be encouraged to wash their hands. New research shows that this is an area to which too little attention has been paid, as you will learn from our previous article.
