Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Some of my best friends are doctors . . .

But honestly, what is wrong with these people? These folks tried an intervention to improve infection control in ICUs. It didn't work, but it's not necessarily because it wasn't a good idea -- it's because the providers didn't follow the protocol.

In intervention ICUs, health care providers used clean gloves, gowns, and hand hygiene less frequently than required for contacts with patients assigned to barrier precautions; when contact precautions were specified, gloves were used for a median of 82% of contacts, gowns for 77% of contacts, and hand hygiene after 69% of contacts, and when universal gloving was specified, gloves were used for a median of 72% of contacts and hand hygiene after 62% of contacts.

Now come on. Almost one third of the time they didn't even wash their hands after contact with a person who was believed to harbor antibiotic resistant bacteria! Yank their damn licenses. I don't know what else to do at this point. WTF?

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