WASH YOUR HANDS, DOC!

It is a common phrase heard from mothers to their children to “wash your hands” before they sit on the table and eat. Not just because we have seen in the TV commercial from germ-fighting soaps that our hands are the most common ground for bacteria, but because we are aware that a dirty hand is a common cause for having a disease. It is a vehicle to a number of diseases. Along these lines, imagine a hand within a hospital setting where innumerable bacteria are present. Touch a table top and you get a few hundreds of them, touch a telephone and you get a few more hundreds…then in minutes it can easily be transmitted to another person by touching them without washing your hands first. Thus will be the spread of diseases…and the so-called HOSPITAL ACQUIRED INFECTIONS especially if you will be passing it on to an individual who have no infection of that kind prior to contact.

This is actually a problem being encountered in health institutions that results to mortality in increasing prevalence, and even morbidity to well individuals in the person of patient companions, patient visitors and hospital staffs. With increasing concern, companies tried their best to come up with solutions to at least reduce incidences, and Kimberly-Clark is among the trusted ones to provide a way to the achievement of goal of educating the many with their Not On My Watch Campaign.

Health care providers being ultimately responsible for the well-being of their clients is being expected to take the role of a model in ensuring safety by being the firsts to observe cleanliness and sanitation. We, in the medical team, have to practice it first hand and educate the patients, companions and hospital staffs on the importance of hygiene, awareness to cleanliness, practice sanitation and ensuring FREQUENT HAND WASHING. Let us encourage them also to remind us to wash our hands with soap and water or make use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer before touching them, and in the same manner that they do the same every so often.