Hospital hygiene

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The hospital hygiene is a medical specialty for the study and implementation of special measures of hygiene in hospitals and clinics, patients inpatient and outpatient treatment, and doctors' offices where outpatient surgical procedures are performed. This includes hygienic measures for both patient and staff protection (infection protection, occupational safety and accident prevention measures).

tasks and goals

Hospital hygiene is responsible for research and teaching on specific questions of hygiene in inpatient and day-patient care facilities with the aim of protecting patients, staff and the environment from the spread of pathogens and harmful substances ( prevention and occupational safety ). At German universities, hospital hygiene is generally established in institutes in combination with microbiology or environmental medicine ; a few large municipal hospitals operate their own institutes for hospital hygiene (e.g. Oldenburg, Stuttgart).

Research topics in hospital hygiene are the epidemiology of communicable diseases, the evaluation of preventive measures (e.g. basic hygiene , vaccination ) and anti- infectious procedures (e.g. sterilization , disinfection , antiseptics , ventilation technology, etc.) as well as the development and evaluation of quality assurance procedures in the specialist field.

Legal regulations

The Infection Protection Act (IfSG) forms a legal basis for hygiene measures in hospitals in Germany. The Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) regularly issues recommendations on hospital hygiene measures.

In 2011, as a result of years of initiative by Klaus-Dieter Zastrow, § 23 “Nosocomial Infections; Resistances; Statutory ordinances by the federal states ” proposed as a new paragraph in the Infection Protection Act and passed by the Bundestag as part of the aforementioned amendment to the law. For the first time, there are nationwide hygiene regulations in Germany with regard to specialist staff for hospitals.

In areas with an increased risk of infection, the German accident prevention regulations (UVV BGV C8 § 22) previously prohibited the wearing of watches and jewelry on the hands and forearms.

Campaigns

In Germany up to 600,000 patients are infected in hospitals every year; It is estimated that up to 15,000 people die of this. For this reason, the Federal Ministry of Health and other bodies supported various campaigns aimed at promoting targeted infection prevention through compliance with hygiene measures in hospitals; so z. In 2008, for example, the Clean Hands campaign of the patient safety group , the Society for Quality Management in Health Care and the National Reference Center for the surveillance of nosocomial infections . In 2015, the Federal Cabinet adopted the German antibiotic resistance strategy "DART 2020" in order, among other things, to reduce antibiotic resistance with certain hygiene measures , which represent an increasing challenge in the fight against infection.

Scientific society

The German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH) brings together the scientists who deal with the problems of hygiene in hospitals and similar institutions. The official communication organ of the DGKH, the working group “Hospital and Practice Hygiene of the AWMF ” and the “ Association for Applied Hygiene (VAH)” is the magazine “Hygiene & Medicine”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 23 "Nosocomial infections; resistances; statutory ordinances by the federal states"
  2. ↑ Jörg Braun: Tips for station work. In: Jörg Braun, Roland Preuss (Ed.): Clinic Guide Intensive Care Medicine. 9th edition. Elsevier, Urban & Fischer, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-437-23763-8 , pp. 1–28, here: pp. 13–15 ( hygiene in the intensive care unit ).
  3. ^ Federal Ministry of Health: Hospital Hygiene. (2019) ; accessed on September 25, 2019
  4. ↑ Federal Ministry of Health: DART 2020 - German Antibiotic Resistance Strategy. ; accessed on September 25, 2019
  5. ↑ HYGIENE & MEDIZIN magazine