Abstract

A STUDY TO ASCERTAIN THE DIFFERENCE IN THE COST OF DISPOSABLE AND NON-DISPOSABLE SURGICAL DRAPE

*Dr. (Brig) A. P. Pandit MD (HA) DNB (H&HA), Dr. Meenal Kulkarni MBA (HA). PhD and Sakshi Behl BSc

Abstract

A nosocomial infection — also called ―hospital acquired infection‖ can be defined as, an infection acquired in hospital by a patient who was admitted for a reason other than that infection. It is an infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other health care facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. This includes infections acquired in the hospital but appearing after discharge and occupational infections among staff of the facility. The most frequent nosocomial infections are infections of surgical wounds, urinary tract infections and lower respiratory tract infections. The WHO study has also shown that the highest prevalence of nosocomial infections occur in Intensive Care units, in acute surgical and orthopedic wards. Many factors promote infection among hospitalized patients. These can be decreased immunity among patients, the increasing variety of medical procedures and invasive techniques creating potential routes of infection, old age, underlying disease, the inconsistency in some of the standard methods and techniques followed by the hospital staff. There is a lot of scope in reducing the hospital acquired infections, by providing sterile supplies in the ICU, OT & wards.

Keywords: Sterile supplies, Disposables, Hospital acquired infections, Cost reduction, Average length of stay.