Lohmann & Rauscher (L&R) has made its inaugural presentation of the “hygiene in practice” movement at the annual conference of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA). Since 16 April 2018, L&R has been providing medical specialists with a new knowledge base in the fields of hygiene, microbiology and epidemiology via the website www.hygiene-in-practice.com in addition to other digital and analogue channels. The “hygiene in practice” service is an international movement, which is geared towards everyone who cares about clean and sterile working environments. Staying true to its corporate claim People.Health.Care., L&R is thinking beyond its product solutions service. In collaboration with international experts, L&R has created a practice-oriented source of knowledge and motivation, which is available round the clock, and which is based on findings from current research, study summaries and insights into actual hygiene practice. The mission of the movement is to minimise infection rates.
Across Europe, around 91,000 people die from hospital infections every year1. Making a real change requires a shift in how people think and act when it comes to hygiene and hygiene measures. To make this easier, L&R has initiated the “hygiene in practice” (hip) movement. It aims to provide doctors, nurses and patients with tips on how to prevent infections and to assist them by providing articles about optimising processes in medical facilities and current research in clinical routine. The fight against germs should ultimately help to minimise rates of infection.
Hand hygiene is not implemented consistently enough
The first step in this direction is proper hand hygiene when working with patients. However, this is still frequently not implemented sufficiently or consistently enough. According to a recent investigation1, a possible reason for this is as follows: medical staff appear to be unaware of how often they come into contact with patients and surfaces within and outside the patient environment, which can lead to the transmission of microorganisms and give rise to potential risks of infection. Since medical staff primarily concentrate on the care or treatment they are providing, they often come into contact with their own bodies and clothing, usually without being aware of it. Researchers discovered that during care and treatment, on average, a transmission of potentially harmful microorganisms to the patient and his environment occurs every four seconds, and a potentially infectious contact approximately every two minutes.
In what areas does “hip” provide advice and content?
As the study1 shows, the deliberate observance of hygiene measures is absolutely essential during patient treatment. The goal of the new, international movement is to increase awareness of strategies to avoid infections by sharing knowledge.
In the “protection” category on the website www.hygiene-in-practice.com , healthcare professionals can find articles about everyday problems and suggestions for practical solutions in connection with hygiene. To be able to prevent infections effectively, however, it is also important to be familiar with pathogens and their characteristics. The “pathogens” section provides an overview of relevant information; profiles of different bacteria, viruses and other pathogens are available for download. The “publications” category contains summaries and downloadable versions of relevant publications and guidelines. Scientists are gaining significant new insights into the fields of hygiene, microbiology and epidemiology every day. “hip” supplies the most recently published hygiene guidelines and discoveries in an informative and clear way and offers regular updates to newsletter subscribers.
Supporting healthcare professionals
As a skilled and globally active solution provider in the fields of medicine, hygiene and care, L&R offers all interested parties up-to-date facts and insights into the hygiene practices of medical specialists via its website www.hygiene-in-practice.com, in order to help them with their daily work. After all, it is only through a high standard of hygiene that medical professionals can guarantee safety and good health not only for themselves, but for their patients too.
Further information on Lohmann & Rauscher (L&R) can be found at:
Reprint free of charge - specimen copy requested.
References:
1: Burden of Six Healthcare-Associated Infections on European Population Health: Estimating Incidence-Based Disability-Adjusted Life Years through a Population Prevalence-Based Modelling Study. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27755545