Month: September 2016
Infections are a major cause of hospitalization and death; as many as 380,000 people die of the infections in LTCFs every year.
Nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities, (collectively known as long-term care facilities, LTCFs) provide a variety of services, both medical and personal care, to people who are unable to manage independently in the community. Over 4 million Americans are admitted to or reside in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities each year and nearly one million persons reside in assisted living facilities. Data about infections in LTCFs are limited, but it has been estimated in the medical literature that:
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1 to 3 million serious infections occur every year in these facilities.
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Infections include urinary tract infection, diarrheal diseases, antibiotic-resistant staph infections and many others.
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Infections are a major cause of hospitalization and death; as many as 380,000 people die of the infections in LTCFs every year.
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Lack Of Cooperation Among Health Facilities Mars Antibiotic Resistance Fight, CDC Says
Unless hospitals and other health care facilities begin cooperatively fighting the country’s most aggressive antibiotic-resistant germs, infection rates could increase as much as 10 percent over the next five years, hitting about 340,000 people annually, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released today.
Individual institutional efforts, the study said, will not be sufficient to combat these germs. Part of the problem, it notes, is that they are spreading as infected patients move between hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities. For the most part, however, efforts to catch and prevent these infections are being done autonomously.
