Kingston, Medical Malpractice Attorney Expands Report on Dangerous Pathogens on Hospital Fabric—this Time on the Curtains!

Three weeks ago I reported a study that hospital employees' uniforms-particularly their scrubs and garb-were SIXTY percent likely to contain dangerous pathogens and deadly bacteria. Tuesday, I reported that New York hospital infection rates were falling. Now today I am reporting that privacy curtains at hospitals are covered in dangerous bacteria and germs. Talk about mixed signals! What does this mean?!

Well, the good news is that this latest study was conducted in Chicago and surveyed only in-state hospitals not in New York. The bad news is that this is not likely to be a situation unique to Illinois.

The study took 180 swab cultures from 43 different privacy curtains twice a week, for three weeks. Almost every single curtain tested-41 out of 43-were contaminated on at least one occasion. The tests detected bacteria such as MRSA, the dangerous methicillin resistant S. aureus strain, and another resistant bacteria, Enterococci. Doing the obvious, that is replacing the curtains, was also not a good fix. Within a week, almost all of the curtains just hung were again contaminated. It is even scary to think that some of the curtains had actually been there for three to four weeks!

So what does this mean? Patients should thoroughly wash their hands after touching the curtain, and health care workers should wash their hands before seeing (and touching) the patient. Moreover, better resistant curtains, fabrics, and even disinfectants, which will not cause complications to patients, should also be utilized to help decrease the current infestation on the curtains.

What do you think about hospital infections? I welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@mmolaw.net. You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.