The War on Germs—and bacteria and viruses and pathogens and...

In the healthcare industry, it is standard practice to manage infections and keep them from spreading from one person to another. This is accomplished primarily with frequent hand washing, something easily done by every visitor to Carmel Hills and our employees. However, there are also hundreds of other precautions taken, some minimum standards required by law and other more complex steps taken by the facility.

Carmel Hills Care Center is one of those facilities that has gone beyond the minimum standards. As a result, we are a certified infectious control facility. What does this mean? For our residents, it means we are quick to identify the symptoms of various types of infections and be proactive in their treatments. It also means we can isolate an individual prior to them infecting others, keeping our community healthy as a whole.

Also, we are capable of admitting new residents while still infected, treating the infection and preventing the infection from spreading. This often results in shorter hospital stays, lower healthcare related costs and can mean a quicker post-acute recovery. Often, we are able to begin some therapies while the individual is infected. Again, with proper infection management, all of this happens without increased risk to the rest of our community.

Controlling infection doesn’t only involve our residents. Proper infection control prevents spread of infection from resident-to-resident, resident-to-staff, staff-to-resident and staff-to-staff. This minimizes everyone’s exposure, from the common cold, flu virus or pneumonia to clostridium difficile (c-diff) or hepatitis, to name a few.

The easiest, most effective way, and a practice we can all benefit from, is simple hand- washing. No special soaps needed or scrub brushes. Simple hand soap, warm water and 20-30 seconds of scrubbing are all that’s required. About the length of time it takes to sing the ABC’s.

<<< BACK