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What is HAI and What Can be Done?
HAI are infections caused by a wide variety of common and unusual bacteria, fungi, and viruses during the course of receiving medical care.
Hospital or Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a major public health problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were an estimated 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections and 99,000 deaths from those infections in 2002. A recent CDC report estimated the annual medical costs of healthcare-associated infections to U.S. hospitals to be between $28 and $45 billion, adjusted to 2007 dollars. HAI are infections caused by a wide variety of common and unusual bacteria, fungi, and viruses during the course of receiving medical care.
HAI are defined as infections not present and without evidence of incubation at the time of admission to a healthcare setting. As a better reflection of the diverse healthcare settings currently available to patients, the term healthcare-associated infections replaced old ones such as nosocomial, hospital-acquired or hospital-onset infections. Most infections that become clinically evident after 48 hours of hospitalization are considered hospital-acquired. Infections that occur after the patient is discharged from the hospital can be considered healthcare-associated if the organisms were acquired during the hospital stay.
HAI is a growing concern within the healthcare industry. Did you know...
- HAI causes 1.7 million infections every year.
- HAI is responsible for 99,000 deaths every year
- HAI costs, for the most part, are no longer reimbursable by Medicare/Medicaid.
- HAI will add, on the average, $8,832 to the affected patient's hospital stay.
- HAI will add from $28 to 45 billion in costs to the healthcare system this year
- Clostridium difficile infection will strike over 3 million Americans this year. From 1 to 2.5% of them will die.
- More Americans will die from invasive MRSA this year than from H. influenzae, group A strep, meningococcal, and pneumococcal disease combined.
A recent study suggests that doctors may want to monitor the environmental condition of their air conditioners evaporator coil before surgery to help prevent the spread of bacterial infections. Dr. Rajiv Sahay, Laboratory Director at Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory (EDLab) and his colleagues sampled evaporator coils in healthcare air handling systems and isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa a known HAI/noscocomial pathogen. This bacterium is listed as fourth most common cause of noscocomial infection and accounting for 10.1% of all hospital acquired infections. According to an estimate by the CDC four patients out of every 1000 discharges gets infected by P. aeruginosa.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen, meaning that it exploits some break in the host defenses to initiate an infection. The bacterium almost never infects uncompromised tissues, yet there is hardly any tissue that it cannot infect if the tissue defenses are compromised in some manner. It also causes urinary tract infections, respiratory system infections, dermatitis, soft tissue infections, bacteremia, bone and joint infections, gastrointestinal infections and a variety of systemic infections, particularly in patients with severe burns, cancer and AIDS patients who are immunosuppressed. Specially, P. aeruginosa infection is a serious problem in patients hospitalized with cancer, cystic fibrosis, and burns etc. The case fatality rate in these patients is near 50 percent.
In the study, over 560,000 colony forming units (CFU)/gram of Pseudomonas sp were isolated from deep within the evaporator coil system. With an average of 10 pounds of debris removed in a typical coil that would equate to over 2.5 trillion CFU in one typical 75 ton evaporator coil system. Potential aerosolization of these micro-organisms from the infested coil is immense due to a discharge of air stream with 6 miles/hours (commonly observed) across the evaporator coils.
One way to battle HAI and remove known pathogens and mycotoxins is to sterilize the evaporator coils and air handling systems by using superheated steam to clean their heat exchangers (heating and cooling coils) utilizing the Pure-Steam process mading it possible to effectively remove dust and associated biofilm lodged deep within in the fins. This process known as “PURE-Steam Sterilization Cleaning Process” saves labor and materials, is chemical free, cleans deeper and better, kills and removes bacterial and fungal growth and sterilizes the coils in the process. The final product affords increased heat transfer efficiency and reduces the energy needed to move the air across the coils.
Mr. Terry stated that “The Pure-Steam Coil Cleaning (PSCC) process is absolutely remarkable. We have been cleaning our coils the conventional way for many years with chemicals and water and we never were able to get the coils as clean as we would like to have oftentimes still leaving an odor. The Pure-Steam Coil Cleaning process is all natural (no chemicals), actually sterilizes our coils using 300 degree steam getting our coils sparking clean like never before, our static pressure is now back to manufacturer spec, we are getting better air flow and increase of cooling capacity.”
Contact the Building Scientists at Pure Air Control Services for a professional evaluation of your buildings or homes IAQ and/or evaporator coil condition at 1-800-422-7873 ext 804 or for the DIY evalu-aire contact Cy Garner at 1-800-422-7873.
For a quote on deep cleansing and sterilization of your evaporator coils utilizing PURE-Steam coil cleaning call 1-800-422-7873 ext 802.
About Pure Air Control Services
Pure Air Control Services, Inc. was founded in 1984 as a small mechanical contracting firm today sets the industry standard for indoor environmental quality diagnosis and remediation.
Pure Air Control Services is a national provider of the following IAQ services: Building Sciences Evaluation; Building Health Check, Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory (EDLab) an AIHA accredited micro laboratory (USP 797 Lab analysis); DIY IAQ Green Check test kits, Environmental Project Management; HVAC System Cleaning, PURE-Steam Coil Cleaning and Mold Remediation Services among other indoor environmental services.
The company’s expanding client roster includes the General Services Administration (GSA); Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Allstate Insurance; Carrier Air Conditioning; Naval Air Warfare Center, Orlando; and Naval Air Station - King's Bay, Georgia, and many other Fortune 500 companies, school boards, and city, state, and county governments, making Pure Air the reliable industry leader.
For more information, visit the company’s web site at www.pureaircontrols.com or contact Dr. Rajiv Sahay, Alan Wozniak or Cy Garner at 1-800-422-PURE (7873) ext 404.
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