Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ: Fans of the TV series "ER" see all the excitement, staff intimacy and heroic life-saving measures, but lives are not usually saved by heroics; they are saved by cleanliness. Swine Flu has everyone in the hospital community eminently aware of hand cleanliness.  Whoever has stock in that automatic steri-foam dispenser is doing very well.

I spent one night in a major hospital ER recently and signs, which cautioned about spreading Swine Flu, were everywhere. Boxes of surgical gloves were in plain sight. An automatic hand sanitizer was affixed to the wall at the door to each hospital room. The red light on the box flicked throughout the day and night as a constant reminder to hit those hands with foam. Most people did except for the young pulmonary medicine resident who, large coffee cup in his left hand, ran his right hand quickly under the device and strolled on without spreading the foam on both his hands. He looked like shades of "Saturday Night Fever" in scrubs and must have been very taken with himself. Hey, doc, hit those hands and ditch the cup.

The fear of Swine Flu has raised the consciousness level, but cleanliness is another thing. I saw intubation kits in sterile bags that had been spiked onto a stand to make them more accessible. So, the sterile nature of the tubs had been removed. An admitting employee coughed into her hands as she answered the phone and I didn't see her reach for the foam dispenser. She didn't even seem to know she had just placed a fresh load of germs on her hands which was then transferred to the phone, the clipboard she handed patients, the desk and the surrounding air.

Physicians used the same stethescope on every patient who came in. Germ transfer? The same BP cuff was used on multiple patients; no covering. I know there's a disposable paper-like covering for these cuffs to keep from transferring anything from patient to patient.

Staff kept busy in the morning dusting and polishing floors, but what about patient lavatories as well as the lavatory in the ER? Failed on the cleanliness test there. I advised one floor nurse that "environmental services" had to clean human fecal matter from the wall and to mop the floor with something to kill germs.

So, Swine Flu or not, hospitals still have a long way to go in looking at the obvious while handling the current fear of infection and some staff need to realize they are not gods. A medical degree does not confer the status of deity.

http://www.drfarrell.net

Patricia A. Farrell, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

Patricia A. Farrell, Ph.D., LLC

Englewood Cliffs, NJ