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Old 06-23-2006, 01:00 PM
Justin Justin is offline
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Compare that with the typical scene in an American hospital where people who are actually working in the OR coming and going to the waiting room, etc.
Jeff,

I understand your point about the differences between the US and Munich. However, there is a sterile surgical field that cannot be broken (or should not be broken in an OR, as every action is taken to prevent this). People walking freely in and out of the OR is true to a certain extent, but precautions are taken to have only necessary medical staff present during an operation. If you are scrubbing in for surgery (the person(s) PERFORMING surgery) and you leave the room and come back in, you have to take the same steps necessary to be allowed back in the sterile field (hand washing, sterile drappings, booties and gloves, etc.)

I do agree that the operating theatres in Munich are held to much higher standards. Hospital infections, or nosocomial infections, are estimated to more than double the mortality and morbidity risks of any admitted patient, and they probably result in about 90,000 deaths a year in the United States (www.emedicine.com ):

Quote:
Frequency:

In the US: Nosocomial infections are estimated to occur in 5% of all acute care hospitalizations. The estimated incidence is more than 2 million cases per year, resulting in an added expenditure in excess of $4.5 billion. The National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention performed a survey from October 1986 to April 1998. They ranked hospital wards according to their association with central-line bloodstream infections. The highest rates of infection occurred in the burn ICU, neonatal ICU, and pediatric ICU.
Internationally: Health-care-associated infections (HAI) impact on the health care systems of developed countries is significant and proportionate to that of the United States.
This is a great discussion.

Justin
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