Hospital marked hard for infection High rates of golden staph

TOWNSVILLE Hospital has one of the highest rates of golden staph infection in Australia, according to a new health report.

The Federal Government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report presents nationally consistent information on cases of staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia ( SAB) in hospitals for the period July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017.

The nationally agreed benchmark is no more than two SAB cases per 10,000 days of patient care for public hospitals in each state and territory.

While all jurisdictions had rates below the national benchmark, Townsville Hospital had the highest rate among the 30 principal referral hospitals in the country, at 1.62.

The figure is also more than double the national rate of 0.76.

Townsville Hospital and Health Service acting chief op- erating officer Adrianne Belchamber said the hospital continued to remain significantly below the national benchmark.

“We closely monitor and investigate all healthcare- associated infections ( HAI), particularly SABs and bloodstream infections. All cases are investigated by our infection control team,” she said.

SAB is a serious bloodstream infection that may be associated with hospital care, with about one in three people carrying the staph aureus bacteria on their skin or in the nose.

In most cases, carrying or transmitting these bacteria do not cause any problems, however if the bacteria enter the body they can multiply which, in turn, can lead to an infection.

In hospitals, transmission can occur when the bacteria enter a patient’s bloodstream.

This can occur if the patient has an open wound or when a device, such as a catheter, needs to be inserted into the skin.

Bloodstream infections can be extremely serious, particularly for people who are already acutely unwell enough to require a hospital admission and may have been receiving treatment in hospital for a long time.

Ms Belchamber said the health service had identified areas for improvement and had begun a significant push to drive down rates further in the coming years.

“For the past 12 months, there has been a working party made up of senior clinicians which has done work around addressing cases of HAI bloodstream infections,” she said.

Strong hand hygiene is one of the best defences against SAB.

“I’d urge anyone who visits our hospital to make use of the hand hygiene stations available throughout the hospital,” Ms Belchamber said.