Infections In Hospitals
As a Delaware medical malpractice lawyer, I'm currently representing a woman who contracted MRSA while she was in a local hospital. This preventable infection is all too common. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2 million hospital infections occur each year, and about 90,000 people die each year from infections they got while in the hospital.
This topic was the subject of an interesting book review that appeared in the NY Times.
According to this review, in order to prevent a patient from getting an infection when a catheter is inserted in the vein, there are five things that doctors should:
(1) wash hands with soap
(2) clean the patient’s skin with antiseptic
(3) cover the patient’s entire body with sterile drapes
(4) wear a mask, hat, sterile gown and gloves
(5) put a sterile dressing over the insertion site after the line is in
Incredibly, in some hospitals, doctors skip one of these steps. The failure to follow any one of these steps is a departure from the standard of care, and constitutes medical malpractice.
