One-third of respondents to CBC survey say patient room, bathroom not clean
This story from the CBC recounts “3,500 submissions to an online survey about patient experiences done by the fifth estate as part of Rate My Hospital, a sweeping week-long series on the state of Canada’s hospitals. Nearly a third of respondents, who included patients, health-care workers and relatives and friends of patients, said hospital rooms and bathrooms were not kept clean.”
This goes much further than dusting and taking out the garbage, though! This is a dangerous problem due to the presence of and susceptibility to superbugs, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, such as CRE, MRSA and VRE.
The story goes on to note that;
Of the respondents who wrote into the fifth estate‘s survey about being harmed in hospital, most said the harm was a hospital-acquired infection such as MRSA and C. difficile.
MRSA develops on the skin and is transmitted through skin to skin contact with an infected person or a surface they’ve touched. C. difficile is spread via surfaces or skin that have come in contact with feces infected with the bacteria.
About one in 10 patients admitted to hospital in Canada contract hospital-acquired infections, and between 8,000 and 12,000 die from them each year.
Read more at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/04/08/hospitals-patient-survey.html