Infection 7 Hospital Acquired Infections Flashcards
What are healthcare infections?
Infections arising as a consequence of providing healthcare
What infections are classified as hospital acquired infections?
Acquired >48 hours free admission
Examples of hospital acquired infections
UTIs
Pneumonia
GI infections
Skin+soft tissue e.g. pressure ulcer
Surgical wound infections
MRSA
Clostridioides difficile
Norovirus
Examples of viruses causing hospital acquired infections
HIV
Hepatitis B+C
Norovirus > diarrhoea + vomiting
Influenza
Chickenpox
Patients at higher risk of getting hospital acquired infection
Extremes of ages
Obesity
Malnourished
Diabetes
Cancer
Imunosuppressed
Smoker
Surgical patient
Emergency admission
Examples of bacteria causing hospital acquired infections
Staph aureus - MRSA
Clostridium difficle
Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Example of parasites causing hospital acquired infections
Malaria
More likely to be from blood contamination than mosquitoes
Examples of fungi causing hospital acquired infections
Candida albicans
Aspergillus species
What are the 4Ps of infection prevention?
Patient
Pathogen
Practice
Place
General patient interventions for infection prevention
- Optimise patient conditions
e.g. reduce smoking, nutrition, diabetes - Hand hygiene
- Skin preparation
- Antimicrobial prophylaxis
Specific patient interventions for infection prevention
MRSA screening
Disinfectant body wash
Mupirocin nasal ointment
Outline isolation for HCIAs
Stop patient to patient transmission
- isolate infected patients
- protect susceptible patients
Healthcare worker interventions for infection prevention
Ensure healthcare workers are - healthy
- disease free
- vaccinated
Good practice - good clinical technique
- PPE
- hand hygiene
- anti-microbial prescribing
Environmental interventions for infection prevention
Cleaning - disinfectants
- steam cleaning
- hydrogen peroxide vapour
Medical devices - single use equipment
- sterilisation
- decontamination
Good food hygiene
+/- pressure rooms
What is patient I-fiving?
Identify
Isolate
Investigate
Inform
Initiate
Identify in I-five
ABCDEF
Abroad
Blood borne infections
Colonised
Diarrhoea/vomiting
Expectorating - coughing up sputum
Funny looking rash
Which people are affected by healthcare infections?
In hospital patients
Healthcare workers
Hospital visitors
Why are healthcare infections important to be aware of?
Frequent
Preventable
Impact health + healthcare organisations
Outline the practice component for infection prevention of HCAI
- general and specific activities of healthcare workers
- policies + their implementation
- leadership at levels from government to ward
Outline the pathogen component for infection prevention for HCAIs
Virulence factors
Ecological interactions - other bacteria, antibiotics etc.
What is antibiotic resistance?
Ability of bacteria to resist the effects of antibiotics previously used to treat them
Three mechanisms of antibiotic resistance
Natural resistance
Genetic mutation
Acquired resistance
What are some reasons for antibiotic resistance?
Misuses of antibitoics
Spontaneous mutations
Give 3 reasons why antimicrobial resistance is a global concern
- threatens the ability to treat common infectious diseases
- increases cost of health care
- makes surgical procedures very high risk
