Friday, May 4, 2012

Are contact precautions headed for extinction?

There's an interesting letter in the latest Clinical Infectious Diseases from Dan Morgan and Kathy Kirkland on contact precautions. They surveyed 34 infectious diseases physicians at a meet-the-professor session at the 2011 Infectious Diseases Society of America Meeting. Interestingly, only 38% believed that contact precautions prevent transmission of multidrug resistant organisms, and 74% felt that contact precautions may actually harm patients. The sample size of the survey was small and perhaps there's bias in that the participants had selected to attend a session on contact precautions, but the findings are intriguing. I suspect that some day in the future people will find photographs of healthcare workers wrapped in plastic as weird as we now find the plague doctor outfit.

Photo: Grim Reviews
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4 comments:

  1. ElMay 6, 2012 at 6:01 PM

    Those MDs are lying their asses off. HIAs mean big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for hospitals. HIA's kill at least 100K people each year. Statistically you are safer in a combat zone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViscotMay 14, 2012 at 8:56 AM

      "HIA's kill at least 100K people each year. Statistically you are safer in a combat zone." This is the scariest truth to me. People go to these facilities to get better, not worse.

      Delete
  2. Eli PerencevichMay 6, 2012 at 6:11 PM

    From what I know, there is no economic incentive for HAIs. HAIs almost uniformly have a negative economic impact for hospitals. I'm also not sure MDs have any incentive in this game either; if you have data to suggest that MDs benefit from HAIs, please share it. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViscotMay 14, 2012 at 8:57 AM

      This. Don't readmission due to HAIs hurt Hospitals? Both Financially and with Medicaid.

      Delete

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