Sepsis, a human body's extreme response to an infection, can be life-threatening. It kills 258,000 Americans annually, according to the Sepsis Alliance.
Maintaining appropriate hand hygiene protocols is one of the key ways sepsis can be mitigated, according to a blog post by Rosie Lyles, MD, director of clinical affairs at Medline.
The post lays out four steps involving hand hygiene that can help fight sepsis. The steps are:
1. Be mindful of how often your hands touch the patient and items by the patient's bedside.
2. Encourage a cultural shift at your healthcare facility wherein staff members remind each other and the clinicians they work with to wash their hands at appropriate moments.
3. Acknowledge the threat of antibiotic resistance and implement proper hand hygiene practices that help prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.
4. Ensure the necessary hand hygiene products, including alcohol-based antiseptics, are readily available to clinicians at your facility.
"Ultimately our main goals are to: Protect yourself. Protect the patient. Push proper hand hygiene and reduce the number of sepsis cases in your facility," Dr. Lyles said in conclusion.