Dive Brief:
- As the incidence of superbugs continues to rise, hospitals are stocking up on supplies to combat them.
- The federal government is also joining in on the fight. Last Fall, President Obama signed an Executive Order on detecting, preventing and controlling antibiotic resistance, which included a five-year plan for fighting antibiotic-resistant microbes.
- In June, the White House held a summit on combating superbugs with a focus on reducing antibiotic use in livestock.
Dive Insight:
For the most part, hospitals have already done a good job of using national standards to establish infection prevention and control policies and procedures for the most common antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They have also developed antibiotic stewardship programs, led by pharmacists and physicians, to educate the public.
New supplies and equipment designed to fight superbugs are also becoming more widely available. "There are unique infection prevention devices out on the market today such as ultraviolet light robots or machines that aerosolize different liquids that then dry on the surfaces and kill bacteria," Kristi Kuper, clinical pharmacy manager for VHA Inc., told Healthcare Finance News. For example, UV light or hydrogen peroxide devices can be used in patient rooms, operating rooms, ICUs and burn units. However, according to Kuper, those devices require a significant capital investment, so hospitals must decide how they will be incorporated into hospital policies, procedures, workflow and training processes before investing in them.
Medical devices that are less susceptible to harboring deadly bacteria, such as duodenoscopes with antimocrobial additives, may also soon be available.