• Prehosp Emerg Care · Apr 2014

    Observational Study

    EMS Provider Compliance with Infection Control Recommendations Is Suboptimal.

    • Bryan E Bledsoe, Richard J Sweeney, Ross P Berkeley, Korey T Cole, Wesley J Forred, and Larry D Johnson.
    • Prehosp Emerg Care. 2014 Apr 1;18(2):290-4.

    IntroductionStandard precautions are disease transmission prevention strategies recommended by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are expected to utilize standard precautions.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study of the use of standard precautions by EMS providers arriving at a large urban emergency department (ED). Research assistants (RAs) observed EMS crews throughout their arrival and delivery of patients and recorded data related to the use of gloves, hand hygiene, and equipment disinfection.ResultsA total of 423 EMS deliveries were observed, allowing for observation of 899 EMS providers. Only 512 (56.9%) EMS providers arrived wearing gloves. Hand washing was observed in 250 (27.8%) of providers. Reusable equipment disinfection was noted in only 31.6% of opportunities. The most commonly disinfected item was the stretcher (55%).ConclusionEMS provider compliance with standard precautions and equipment disinfection recommendations is suboptimal. Strategies must be developed to improve EMS provider compliance with internationally recognized infection control guidelines. Key words: Emergency medical services, hand washing, hygiene, disinfection, disease prevention.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…