Patients need to wash their hands to enhance their own safety, based on a new research letter JAMA Internal Medicine published, according to Space Coast Daily.
The researchers studied patients in Detroit who traveled from hospitals to post-acute care facilities.
Here are six notes:
1. The study found one in four adults left the hospital with a superbug on their hands.
2. About 10 percent of patients picked up another superbug on their hands while in post-acute care.
3. Of patients who had superbugs on their hands, 67 percent still had them when they left the center.
4. Superbugs easily transmit from hands to other parts of the body.
5. Although nurses and physicians are trained in hand hygiene, no movement has targeted patients with the same kind of zeal.
6. The study's authors urge patient safety advocates rewrite hand hygiene guidelines to include patients.
