Summary: Community Acquired Infections
Infections are one of the health care problems that are in the constant eye of health care organizations to fight as transmission can be quick and insidious and prevention is far more cost efficient and manageable than treatment of the infections. For a long time, healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) were a major hassle for health care settings to deal with as they not only put the patients at risk of negative health outcomes and complications; their treatment presents a heavy cost on the setting as health insurances refuse to pay for HAIs. In response to this treat, health care organizations revised and improve drastically their infection control policies and protocols as well as patient education, treatment and decolonization of reservoirs
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and decreasing hospital stay length as well as relying in outpatient services all of which help drastically decrease the incidence of HAIs like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) but not eradicate it. These services with home health being an exceptional example are a much more cost efficient way to provide some low acuity health care services such as IV medication therapy and wound care.
As the rate of HAIs decrease the incidence of community acquired infections (CAIs) has been on the rise which has been attributed and linked to many factors both demographical and environmental. However, in recent years, there have begun to be growing cases of CAIs involving drug resistant strains such as MRSA, Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and even multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) which are affecting both individual with current health problems and healthy individuals alike (Cataldo et al, 2011). One component that has to yet be fully accounted for is the growing interaction of the communities with outpatient health care services and the education of communities, which is one of the most important components to reduce the incidence of CAIs as it is the individual’s lack of active infection control practices that promotes the proliferation of these strains. The following paper will discuss the information regarding drug resistant infections, the difference between HAIs and CAIs, the impact of drug resistant infections on communities, and how communities, outpatient services and health care organizations can coordinate their infection control strategies and educate individuals to protect communities from these drug resistant
threats.
and decreasing hospital stay length as well as relying in outpatient services all of which help drastically decrease the incidence of HAIs like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) but not eradicate it. These services with home health being an exceptional example are a much more cost efficient way to provide some low acuity health care services such as IV medication therapy and wound care.
As the rate of HAIs decrease the incidence of community acquired infections (CAIs) has been on the rise which has been attributed and linked to many factors both demographical and environmental. However, in recent years, there have begun to be growing cases of CAIs involving drug resistant strains such as MRSA, Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and even multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) which are affecting both individual with current health problems and healthy individuals alike (Cataldo et al, 2011). One component that has to yet be fully accounted for is the growing interaction of the communities with outpatient health care services and the education of communities, which is one of the most important components to reduce the incidence of CAIs as it is the individual’s lack of active infection control practices that promotes the proliferation of these strains. The following paper will discuss the information regarding drug resistant infections, the difference between HAIs and CAIs, the impact of drug resistant infections on communities, and how communities, outpatient services and health care organizations can coordinate their infection control strategies and educate individuals to protect communities from these drug resistant
threats.