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Hospital infections Every fourth clinic passes important hygiene regulations
Not only since the spread of highly resistant germs in the Stuttgart hospital, the question arises as to how severe clinical infections can be better prevented. It would be very essential here to comply with the hygiene requirements. But in every fourth hospital this does not happen.
Hygiene regulations are not adhered to
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, up to 15,000 people in Germany die every year from hospital infections. Estimates from other experts say there are as many as 30,000 deaths. "Inpatient and outpatient treatment and care are associated with a risk of infection," writes the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on its website. If more hospitals were to comply with health regulations, the danger could probably be significantly reduced. But about every fourth German clinic does not comply with these requirements.
Hygiene regulations are particularly important in hospitals to prevent infections. But in about every fourth German clinic, the requirements are not met. (Image: bmf-foto.de/fotolia.com) Better infection protection needed
Health experts have been pointing out for years that better infection control would be needed in German hospitals.
Especially for older people or those with a weakened immune system, infections with germs can quickly become dangerous and, for example, cause inflammation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting or blood poisoning.
Taillight Bremen
According to a recent report, more than one in four hospitals (26 percent) does not comply with the RKI's health regulations and employs too few hygiene workers. This has resulted in joint research by the ARD magazine "Plusminus" and the search center "Correctiv".
According to the information, Bremen is in last place, where the standards in 43 percent of all hospitals are not met. On penultimate place is Thuringia with 42 percent, followed by Berlin with 37 percent. Hamburg is therefore the best. There, only ten percent of the clinics miss the hygiene requirements.
Which hospitals meet the hygiene standards
According to a report by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), "Correctiv" and "Plusminus" have for the first time created a freely accessible database in which one can check on the homepage "plusminus.de" which hospitals fulfill the hygiene standards and which not.
Dirk Janssen, vice-president of the regional association Nord of the health insurance BKK, considers the results alarming. According to him, they showed "serious shortcomings" of many clinics in dealing with hygiene. If nothing changes, "it costs thousands of patients every year," says Janssen.
Plan to combat multidrug-resistant germs
As the statement states, the Federal Ministry of Health is shifting responsibility to the federal states and the individual clinics. According to the information provided by the Infection Protection Act from 2011 until the end of 2016, binding regulations should be created for sufficient hygiene personnel.
In addition, Health Minister Herrmann Gröhe (CDU) presented in early 2015 a ten-point plan for combating multidrug-resistant germs in clinics, which had the goal to hire more hygiene staff by the end of 2016.
According to the ministry, the achievement of the goal was "extended at the request of the countries in the meantime by the end of 2019".
The Vice President of the German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH), Walter Popp, criticized: "The hospitals have chosen the initiative."
The DGKH organizes a symposium in Bochum on March 21 under the motto "Current hospital hygiene for patient advocates". "The lectures are expressly not intended for professionals, but aimed at lay people and there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion," it says in the invitation to do so. (Ad)