If you work in a hospital, you will be more than familiar with ensuring that any viruses or bacteria that may enter the hospital are not spread around. There are plenty of methods you can implement if you haven’t already to ensure the spread of infection doesn’t occur – and the following are some of the most crucial to fulfill.

Anti-Microbial Disposable Curtains

Anti-microbial disposable curtains are a great way of preventing infection. They are specially made anti-bacterial curtains that work by preventing any bacteria cells from reproducing and therefore prevent these bacteria from spreading to patients and practitioners.

If these curtains are disposable, this also adds an extra layer of protection to both patients and staff as you can dispose of them after every patient has been discharged or if the curtains happen to get covered in bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit. These curtains are sold on various reputable medical supply sites, including medical-supermarket.com.

Disinfect All Surfaces

This may be an obvious one; however, it is very easy to miss some surfaces, especially those that people might assume don’t need to be cleaned very often. Still, it doesn’t matter what surface it is; all surfaces in hospital areas should be continuously cleaned.

Proper disinfection isn’t just a simple case of changing a patient’s bed sheets and wiping down the bed once that patient has been discharged; you need to fully clean and disinfect every single surface in sight.

Use Gloves

Gloves are a requirement for medical personnel to wear if they are having any contact with the inside of a patient’s body or with a wound, as well as if they are dealing with body fluids.

These gloves should be disposable, and once you have finished with a patient, you should immediately throw them away in a properly designated medical waste bin, followed by washing your hands or applying anti-bacterial hand sanitizer to your hands. You should also put on a new pair of gloves when dealing with a new patient.

Regularly Change Patient Bedding

Even though it’s more than likely you don’t change your bedding at home every day, the same principle cannot be applied in a medical setting. Patients’ bedding should be changed at least once a day, or alternatively, it should be changed if it gets dirty, such as if a patient vomits on it or if a blanket falls off the bed and onto the floor.

Have AnInfection Control Policy

Every hospital should have an infection control policy to avoid any major infections from being easily spread around the building. This should also include having a system in place for when a patient needs to be put in isolation or quarantine if they have a major infection that is contagious.

Know Where Infections Are

As well as having an infection control policy, it’s also important that hospital staff identify the area where an infection has occurred. In some cases, this may only involve one patient, which may require putting that patient in some form of isolation.

Alternatively, even though an infection may have started off with one patient, by the time it has been identified, it may have spread through other wards or even to other far-reaching of the hospital.

However, it’s also important to try and catch an infection before it’s even a problem. For instance, a patient might exhibit particular symptoms indicative of a certain disease. In such a case,they should be tested for any suspected infection as quickly as possible while remaining isolated from other patients – that way, if they do happen to have a contagious infection or disease, it can be controlled before it’s even diagnosed thus preventing spread.

Not only will carrying out these methods give you peace of mind, but it will also give your patients and their family and friends a higher standard of care and and safety when they come into your hospital or medical practice.