Although a serious issue, while reading an OpEd by Charles S. Lauer in “Modern Healthcare” on hospital infection rates, I had to chuckle.  Mr. Lauer, former VP of publishing for Modern Healthcare, wrote a column on hospital acquired infections,  “Tighten the controls . . . There is no excuse for hospital-acquired infections.”  He reminisced about his multiple joint surgeries and the fact that he had happily dodged the infection bullet.

Then he made a reference to the retiring head of the Joint Commission, Dennis O’Leary. According to Mr. Lauer, Mr. O’Leary had informed him last year that he wouldn’t be a patient in a hospital without being accompanied the entire time by his own personal patient advocate.  No kidding.  That would be like President George W. Bush going to the Fallujah Medical Center for Surgery from an Al-quada sympathizer.  It would be like O. J. Simpson going to Ron Goldman for a laproschopic cholestectomy.  Seriously, if you headed up an organization that charges millions of dollars every year to criticize hospitals, you’d be a little (excuse the reference) o’leery of a visit there as well.

Seriously, the entire infection issue is an amazing problem.  Some organizations are dealing with this by having every human being wash their hands every time they enter a patient’s room.  After watching a physician at one of the other hospitals where I had worked leave the bathroom without washing his hands, I have to agree.  Heck, he would have been fired at Denny’s.

He talked about the rubber glove fallacy where employees don’t wash their hands, but put on the rubber gloves and contaminate them as they are pulling them into place.  He reminded us to ask for antibiotics one hour before surgery, BUT one thing he didn’t talk about was having CEO’s create a healing environment in their hospitals.  We allow the families and significant others to stay 24/7.  We try to have each patient touched multiple times each day by care givers other than just their nurses and physicians.  We work desperately to create a nurturing environment for everyone, and our infection rate has not gone above 1% for nearly ten years.  If you aren’t living in terror, maybe your white blood cells will actually have a chance to do their jobs.

I’m not sure if it is as simple as that.  It probably goes back to the necktie thing.  Ask your doc to drop the tie.  We all know that they spread germs!  So do the neckties.