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Staying Healthy in the Hospital

Staying Healthy in the Hospital

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Each year, 99,000 Americans die from infections acquired in hospitals. Here are eight easy steps you can take to make sure your hospital stay is as safe as possible: > Ask your health care providers to wash their hands before touching you. > Make sure providers put on new gloves. And make sure they wash their hands before donning them. > Ask for verification that medical equipment is sterile and that syringes haven't been previously used. > Ask to be checked'and treated, if needed'for MRSA before any major medical procedure. > If you're having surgery and the site needs to be shaved, ask that clippers be used. Razor cuts are susceptible to infection. > Stay warm before surgery. A warm body better resists infections. > Ask your doctor if there are any skin disinfectants you should use at home, particularly in the days before a surgery. > Catheters are a major source of infection; make sure you absolutely need it before allowing catheterization. If you do, make sure your providers remove it the moment it's no longer needed.

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

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