Health Care Workers Battle Super Bugs

CBS Evening News: Hospital Employees Taking Innovative Steps To Curb The Spread Of Deadly Infections

(CBS)  Going to a hospital can be hazardous to your health.

Among the leading dangers is MRSA, a lethal bacteria, that can easily be spread by healthcare workers. But as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports, a new study reveals how those same workers are coming up with effective ways to greatly reduce the chances of infecting others.

After 26 years of moving patients around Albert Einstein Medical Center, Jasper Palmer is now "the" expert on the proper removal of a scrub gown.

In under a minute he neatly encases the robe in a surgical glove, keeping any contagious bugs at bay. Now it's his innovation that is making the rounds here.

Palmer's is one of a number of precautions - including swab tests for all incoming and outgoing patients - formulated by healthcare teams to stop the spread of MRSA, an antibiotic resistant staph infection that can be fatal, especially in people with weakened immune systems.

In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control said MRSA was killing 19,000 people a year and causing 94,000 serious infections.

MRSA claimed both of Kerri Cardellos' legs. CBS News interviewed her in 2007 about the infection she believes she picked up in a Maryland hospital in 2003.

"If they had screening of MRSA they may have caught it," Cardellos says.

One type of MRSA is associated with healthcare facilities. Brought in by sick patients, it's mainly transmitted by healthcare workers.

"We have people who are coming in contact with patient after patient, who are going from room to room, who could be potential spreaders of MRSA," says Dr. Jeff Cohn, Chief Quality Officer for Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Instead of looking outside for answers, Dr. Cohn asked his front-line staff - nurses, technicians and patient transporters - to brainstorm. The approach is called Positive Deviance, or PD.

"It works because the solutions come from within," says Dr. Cohn. "The people whose behaviors need to change are the ones who come up with the ideas for what they need to do differently."

Since implementing the policy in 2006, Einstein Medical Center has cut its MRSA infections by 30 percent: 19 fewer infections in 2007. At five other healthcare facilities also using PD, infection rates dropped by up to 60 percent.

"We learn from each other," says Jennifer Marvelous, a nurse. "Personally, I respond better to that than hearing from an authority."

Just a reminder, Miller reports, that problem solving sometimes works best from the bottom up.

[josephloegering]

These are not Superbugs, the Generic Drugs are Frauds, ever since 1979 these Doctors have been giving me the weakest Antibiotics first, Erythromycin and a Erythromycin Derivative, then Amoxicillin, then a Penicillin Derivative, then finally Penicillin which has nearly killed me every time I get a strep infection, and nearly every time they operate I get a staph infection, because the weaker Antibiotics leave you infected with the stronger strains of the Bacteria. And worse the Generic Penicillin does not kill off the Strongest Strains of strep and staph and other Bacteria but Pure Penicillin from a slow acting shot or by IV kills it every time. The Stronger Bacteria that they leave all the patients infected with are even killing Bees and Wasps and other Hibernating creatures during the winter months, because these Bacteria seek heat, and in the cooler operating rooms, the open wound of the patient is the warmest thing in the room, and it is the heat that attracts the Bacteria.

These people that claim Bacteria are mutating are robbing the Patients, the Insurance Companies, the Tax Payers, and working for the enemies of the People of these United States using the Medical System to overthrow the USA from within!

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.info-science/topics?lnk

Former US Army Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare Instructor,

In service of Yahweh and Country

Elohim Joseph

Heir by birthright of the house of Israel

[quidam56]

In America, Profit care comes ahead of Patient care.

www.wisecountyissues.com

[nolongersick]

There have been serious and deadly consequences this flu season. And it is no time to get complacent. Remember young children are the #1 spreaders of germs. If you have and/or work with them, keep them from catching and passing germs and getting everyone else sick! My daughter learned this great program in daycare called Germy Wormy Germ Awareness for Germ Transportation Vehicles ages 2 -7. It teaches kids in an innovative and imaginative way how to both avoid AND keep from spreading germs. Parents, schools and daycare centers are raving about it!

http://www.germywormy.com

Give kids a PLACE to give their germs to, instead of YOU!

[brainteaser2]

I don't want to make light of any of this but did anyone notice besides me Nurse Jennifer Marvelous. It certainly invites the imagination doesn't it.

[drmsullivan]

Along with MRSA, many significant infection-causing bacteria in the world are also becoming resistant to the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial treatments. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria change or adapt in a way that allows them to survive in the presence of antibiotics designed to kill them. In some cases bacteria become so resistant that no available antibiotics are effective against them. People infected with antibiotic-resistant organisms like MRSA are more likely to have longer and more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die as a result of the infection. When the drug of choice for treating their infection doesn?t work, they require treatment with second- or third-choice medicines that may be less effective, more toxic and more expensive.

There is a new weapon in the fight against MRSA that is now FDA-cleared and commercially available in the United States. The Microcyn® Technology (www.oculusis.com/us/technology) is a safe-as-saline anti-infective that quickly eradicates a broad range of pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including MRSA and VRE), viruses, fungi and spores. Dual-action in nature, in addition to killing the infection, the Microcyn also accelerates the wound-healing process by reducing inflammation in the wound and increasing nutrient-rich blood and oxygen flow to the wound bed. Twenty-five clinical studies have demonstrated Microcyn to be both safe and effective in killing pathogens. There?s an excellent doctor discussion of this new technology at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAiWWNCfYH4

[I_am_me1953]

People as we all know diseases such as these are attracted to sin and follow the path of least prayer so if you refrain from sinning and pray a lot its just common sense that you wont be affected by these diseases.
Posted by Harry_Snapperorgans at 5:32 AM : Mar 23, 2009
___________________

With comments such as this it is no wonder so many people hate Christians. My mother at age 78 contracted MRSA. She spent 6 hours in debridement surgery being debrided from he left iliac crest up her spine around her chest and up under her left breast. She was in either the hospital or an intermediate nursing facility from mid September until early January when she finally died.

There are too many people suffering from this disease for you to spout out your totally ignorant nonsense. If you really wish to contribute, please do, but your comments on this disease being because of sinning need to be kept to your personal cult. I am sure there are religous leaders that would agree with you, Jim Jones, David Karesh and others.

[Marie Zarankevich]

ALL truly workable solutions have to be local, and not from higher ups. -- If you apply global solutions, from higher up, to local problems, it is bound to fail. -- Only the local participants know what the local problems really are, therefore only they can design the solutions.

[sbb13]

Since garlic has been used for centuries to combat infections all the more reason why stable allicin would help to combat MRSA. This is the first time in history that allicin (the antibiotic property of garlic) has been stabilized.
Stabilized allicin has saved thousands of lives and limbs.

Scientific Research Files:
Abstract, Dr. Ronald Cutler:
http://www.optimalhealthusa.com/files/Allimed_-_EJNR.pdf
http://optimalhealthusa.com/files/ALLICIN_MRSA_DRCutler_Paper_1_.pdf

Current news reports regarding stable allicin:
250 people recover from MRSA using stable Allicin:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365884,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7531978.stm

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj6C6aEyrYk

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KSObBa5b0Bw&feature=related

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/eccmid15/abstract.asp?id=37436

[mdalerwill]

Don't want to diet or exercise, medical science will cure all your ills. COOL, less people to clog the system of life. Science can't cure everything (regardless of what people think).
There is no magic pill! Personal responsibility still reigns supreme!
Posted by dkhorse11 at 1:10 AM : Mar 23, 2009

As someone who lost a close family member to MRSA, I would like you to know how offensive I find your attitude. My family member didn't die because she lacked personal responsibility, and she wasn't clogging "the system of life." She was an incredible person, and many people's lives are poorer for her absence.

[rational_1]

People as we all know diseases such as these are attracted to sin and follow the path of least prayer so if you refrain from sinning and pray a lot its just common sense that you wont be affected by these diseases.
Posted by Harry_Snapperorgans at 5:32 AM : Mar 23, 2009

Come on - leave the keyboard, go eat your Cheerios and try to learn some trigonometry in school today. Leave the postings to the adults.

[luckygirl042]

I have worked in health care for over 20 years. I, personally , am paranoid about bacteria and follow all possible precautions. For the most part, a large percentage of the various personnel do wash their hands and take universal precautions. Unfortunately, there are always that bunch who are rushing from room to room, patient to patient without handwashing, and even going into isolation rooms without a gown or gloves. Sadly, this can include the MDs. All facilities require employees to attend inservices and constant updates on the spread of pathogens, but apparently some workers are just "too busy" or just plain careless when it comes to protecting themselves and the patients. I will never understand why a person would walk past an "isolation" sign and not glove, gown and mask, and wash up afterwards. I will never be too busy to protect myself and the patients.

[erasmus111]

Posted by Newster1 at 12:51 AM : Mar 23, 2009

Even though Cathy may be spamming, the fact is that MRSA is an antibiotic resistant infection. If I, or someone I know should ever get this, and nothing is working, I will have information on something that could possibly work. Maybe not, but it would be worth a try, don't you think?

[dkhorse11]

Don't want to diet or exercise, medical science will cure all your ills. COOL, less people to clog the system of life. Science can't cure everything (regardless of what people think).

There is no magic pill! Personal responsibility still reigns supreme!

[incog-nito]

Great news!!! A few health care workers have finally figured out that taking a few simple precautions reduces the chance of them killing patients by spreading germs. Let's pray that the rest figure it out also.

[erasmus111]

Cathy didnt read that when she AGREED not to spam the site with ADS for her web site sales for garlic pills you can buy anywhere probably half the price.

Posted by Newster1 at 12:51 AM : Mar 23, 2009

Well, I don't know whether she's spamming or not, but she isn't talking about garlic "pills".
She's talking about something that is in found in "garlic".

[Newster1]

A British study found the germs are also passed after touching a cell phone. In 1890 Louis Pasteur was ridiculed by doctors when he demanded that doctors wash their hands between patients. 130 years later the problem remains.
Posted by Mencken

People are basically filthy animals, and there's no limit to the number of nasty diseases people can pass around and a lot of this is from overuse of antibiotics as well as raising kids in hospital like home environments where their immune system never even has a CHANCE to be built up, challenged and grow- its stiffled by hand sanitizers, disinfectants and all the rest and then when the kid grows up they have HALF an immune system that has no experience, is it a wonder so many adults now are allergic to simple dust and growing things like grass, trees, pollin and pets??
The same goes for the crazy things we see more of now like MS and other auto immune disorders- caused by skrewed up immune systems that never developed in early childhood and begin attacking it's own body

[Newster1]

Posted by MRSArecovery3yrs at 8:40 PM : Mar 22, 2009

Thanks for posting this information. Don't know anyone that has had this yet, but I will definitely save this information.
Posted by erasmus111

Dont bother, its just another web site spammer trying to drive traffic and sales to her web site in violation of the bold text rules by the post button where it says;

"The posting of advertisements....
is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service."

Cathy didnt read that when she AGREED not to spam the site with ADS for her web site sales for garlic pills you can buy anywhere probably half the price.

[Newster1]

We prayed and researched until we found something that would save our family.
MRSA was literally eating away at us and what we found stopped MRSA from killing us. It is called...." SPAM

SPAM is what it's called cathy!

Yeah right cathy-spammer, prayers dont work as you found out, but gee your wonderful GARLIC pills cured your entire family!! yeah RIGHT!

[Newster1]

I welcome emails from anyone who wants our help. *** bless, Cathy
[e-mail]
MRSA info and our recovery:
www.SPAMMING-CBS-SOME_MORE-healthusa.com

Thanks for SPAMMING us with your "miracle" cure, web site and email address cathy, reporting same as spam now GET LOST you story is as believable as the Nigerian scam!

[medifix-2009]

I have been publishing information warning medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers to bring in changes that help us reduce this bacterial threat. The longer we wait the harder it will get for us to stop the spread.
Please, please educate healthcare workers not to use medical devices that help colonization and spread this infection. We must use our comment sense and not wait for universities to tell us how and why infection is spreading.
Please check out my website www.medifix.co.uk to read more.