Pilot project to combat hospital germs

Pilot project tells hospital germs to fight

22.03.2012

Multidrug-resistant hospital germs are a growing problem in hospitals throughout Germany. With a pilot project, the AOK Bremen / Bremerhaven and the Red Cross Hospital in Bremen now want to break new ground in the fight against the dangerous MRSA germs.

The pilot project of the health insurance AOK and the Red Cross Hospital will help to reduce the spread of resistant hospital germs and significantly reduce the risk of infection during hospitalization. For this purpose, AOK insured persons, who are faced with the use of an artificial joint or a vascular prosthesis, have been tested for the MRSA germs in advance of the planned operation. With appropriate evidence of the pathogens, they receive special advice and treatment to prevent transmission of the germs and reduce the risk of infection.

Special advice and treatment should prevent the spread of hospital germs
If the patient is diagnosed with an already existing infection, those affected will receive a hygiene care kit with special nasal gel, shampoo and disinfectant as well as detailed advice on the rules of conduct to prevent transmission of the germs. With the help of the care set „The patients themselves should remove the germs from the skin for one week“, said the medical director of the Red Cross Hospital, Dr. med. Stefan Herget-Rosenthal. The attached mouth rinses and nose ointment should help to kill the pathogens in the mouth or throat and on the nasal mucosa. In this way, the physicians hope not only to avoid spread of the pathogen in the clinic, but also to prevent the penetration of the germs into the organism during the operation. Because the germs remain, according to Dr. Herget-Rosenthal often adhere to the prostheses used, which can lead to serious complications. Since antibiotics have no effect on the resistant hospital germs, a removal of the prosthesis is usually required. For the patients, this meant months of suffering with open wounds and no implants, emphasized the commercial director of the Red Cross Hospital. Walter Klingelhöfer.

Pilot project on hospital germs initially limited to one year
According to the initiators, the pilot project is initially limited to one year to check whether this will reduce the number of hospital infections. After a one-year pilot phase, it should be determined in which number of patients the corresponding germs were actually detected and how the acceptance of the project in the patients failed. In principle, however, there is no doubt about the need to step up the fight against the spread of dangerous hospital germs. Because many patients are noticeably insecure in view of the frequent reports of resistant pathogens in the clinics. Thus, the chairman of the board of AOK Bremen / Bremerhaven, Norbert Kaufhold stressed that the AOK with the project „use the possibilities“ want her „Insured to protect against unnecessary risks“ and in this way reduce the fears of hospitalization. The Head of Unit at the Bremer Gesundheitsressort, Dr. med. Martin Götz, was convinced of the approach of the pilot project and assumes that this „an attraction for other states and coffers“ unfold.

More than half a million hospital infections in Germany every year
According to a joint assessment of the German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH), the Society for Hygiene, Environmental Medicine and Preventive Medicine (GHUP) and the Federal Association of Physicians of the Public Health Service (BVÖGD) from last year around 30,000 people in Germany are dying from the consequences of infections with the so-called hospital germs. In total, according to the experts, between 500,000 and 900,000 people in this country suffer a corresponding infection every year as part of a hospital stay. The pathogens have resistance to common antibiotics and therefore can hardly or only be treated extremely difficult. In hospitals, the inappropriate use of antibiotics and the neglect of hygiene regulations often lead to the emergence or spread of resistant pathogens. The immune system of already weakened hospital patients often has little to oppose the germs, so that they are particularly easily infected. (Fp)

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