Hospitals overlook infection guidelines

Richard James, Professor of Microbiology at Nottingham University makes one of the most valid points when it comes to infections and infection control...that ultimately Infection Control is about behavior.  Not just behavior of Doctors, Nurses or other Front Line Staff (which is the most common group held responsible for problems in infection control), but of hospital administration, politicians, and policymakers. 

This article quotes an outbreak of Clostridium Difficile at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.  This infection was spread to at least 1,100 patients...approximately 90 died.  What happened?  There were a variety of causes.  Handwashing, infection surveillance, isolation procedures and other infection controls were not followed, but those factors weren't the only causes of the outbreak.  This article looks beyond that to the root causes, something that is rarely done.

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