Infection Control Guards CMMC

              Posters Like This reminder to wash hands are among the ways that Sue
Crow, nurse epidemiologist at Confederate Memorial Medical Center,
and kifectioo control staff members are working to stamp out infections
in the hospital. (Times Photo by Billy Upshaw)
Infection Control Guards CMMC
By Elaine King
Time* Medical Writer
Confederate Memorial Medical Center
(CMMC) has expanded its work on infec-tion
control with the addition of two
senior nursing students who help survey
the hospital for any infection among
patients.
Infection control is a relatively new
concept for American hospitals, accor-ding
to Sue Crow, nurse epidemiologist
at CMMC.
It is so new that there is no official
training offered for hospital personnel to
learn about combating infections in
hospitals. However, the federal Center
for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta,
Ga., disseminates information about in-fection
control, she said.
O H of Few in State
CMMC is oae of the few hospitals in
louisiana that has an infection control
staff that works to identify patient infec-tions
and combat them when found, she
said.
All hospitals in the United States
must have an infection control commit-tee,
however, she said. The committee is
required under guidelines from the Joint
Committee on Hospital Accreditation,
she said.
CDC has estimated, she pointed out,
that five per cent of infections incurred
by hospital patients are acquired while
in the hospital.
The infection control staff at CMMC
works to identify any infections that oc-cur
in patients and to find out the cause
of the infection so that it can be
eliminted, she explained.
A major area of the infection control
program at CMMC, which has been un-derway
at the hospital for two years, is
survellience, she said.
Since the nursing students, Renee
House and Richard Norman, joined the
staff, complete survellience of CMMC is
possible, Mrs. Crow added.
Before the two students joined the
staff Mrs. Crow did all survellience work
at the hospital, and was able to cover
only the critical care areas of the
hospital.
Survellience, she said, means going to
the wards in the hospital and checking
for infections in patients. If any is found,
the cause of the infection is pinpointed.
If the infection is noted among
several patients, then inservice training
may be required. Inservice training of
procedures with equipment is a preven-tive
measure, she said.
Isolation for patients with an infec-tious
disease is also a technique used,
she added.
Precautions when a patient is isolated
include instructions to those entering the
room on what to wear and what disinfec-tant
the housekeeping staff should use to
clean the room.
Hospitals that say "We don't have
any infection* don't really know if they
aren't conducting survellience, Mrs.
Crow said.
The infection rate has been reduced
at CMMC since the program was
initiated and now is within the national
average of 5 to 6 per cent, she said.
For example, the urinary tract infec-tion
rate was cut SO per cent, and
tracheostomy infections dropped 3i per
cent, she said.
Because CMMC is talking about its in-
7
fection rate, Mrs. Crow emphasized,
does not mean that CMMC has an infec-tion
problem that other hospitals do not.
It does mean, she pointed out, that
CMMC knows when there is an infec-tion
and that steps are outlined to com-bat
the infection.
Chairman of the infection control
committee at CMMC is Dr. Burton West,
chief of the infections disease section,
department of surgery, at Louisiana
State University School of Medicine in
Shreveport.
He has worked with the committee
since July, Mrs. Crow said, and has been
able to discuss problems with physicians
at the hospital when necessary.
Handwashing Stressed
Infection control also includes keeping
up - to - date on recommendations from
CDC on procedures for equipment. And
it includes a new gas sterilizer that
makes possible sterilization of supplies
and equipment that could not be
sterilized by previous means, she said.
Handwashing is being stressed, and is
one of the areas that is emphasized in a
poster campaign for employes
throughout the hospital, Mrs. Crow
noted.
CMMC artist Janet Germany drew
posters that are mounted as reminders
to employes to take steps that help com-bat
infection, she said. The posters are
moved around the building so the em-ployes
don't become too accustomed to
seeing the same reminders.
There is even a poster to remind doc-tors
to change masks between
operations, she added.