Melissa Cruise
Amy Kessler
Antibacterial resistance among bacteria has become a worldwide public health threat. We think we have safe places from harmful bacteria, but in reality they are everywhere. Hospitals are supposed to be a place that is relatively free of them, but they are really one of the best places to pick up unknown and possibly harmful bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics (3). Some hospitals have implemented precautions against patients and staff contracting these possibly harmful bacteria by putting hand sanitizer dispensers by doorways. But is this enough? As members of the hospital staff of Hancock County Hospital, we think not. Bacteria travel on our whole body. Not just on our hands, but also on our feet, because there are a lot more bacteria on the ground than are in the air. By walking on the ground our feet become saturated with bacteria and without anything to kill them off we end up dragging them into the hospitals (4).
The policy that we will be implementing here is that we will be placing disinfectant mats down at all entrances and exits of the hospital. People will have to walk across these mats to either enter or exit our facility. This will reduce the amount of bacteria that may be resistant to antibiotics entering or exiting the hospital. This will, in turn, prevent new patients from contracting a harmful pathogen from a current patient, and will also prevent people from carrying potentially harmful bacteria from our hospital out into the world. It is not just the patients who are carrying these bacteria into the hospital that are the problem; they are also carried by the employees of the hospital out into the world when they leave here (2).
Exposing harmful bacteria to the world has a few major consequences. For example, it will contribute to antibacterial resistance. In fact, bacteria are already becoming resistant to many antibiotics on the market today. Most of the original antibiotics that were used in the early 20th century are considered obsolete for treating present-day bacterial infections (1).The bacteria that people drag out of the hospital might or might not be resistant to antibiotics. However, if they are exposed to many, many other species of bacteria, there is a good chance that at least some of them will be resistant to antibiotics. The two species can share plasmids that contain genes of antibacterial resistance (5).Consequently, the bacteria that escaped from our hospital without our knowledge might cause a new strain of harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria that someone could contract and be sent back to us to receive treatment for.
The antibacterial mats would be located at all the entrances and exists of our hospital. They would be right inside of the doors in order to catch the bacteria that can be carried in from outside and also to catch the bacteria that could be taken out into the world. The janitors or maintenance employees would make sure the mats get cleaned and refilled every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The initial cost of the mats will be $1500 for ten five by six foot mats. We came up with this total because our hospital has a total of ten doors that we need to put mats in front of. It will cost the facility $998.40 per year to refill the disinfectant in the mats. The type of disinfectant we chose to use is Spectrum HBV disinfectant detergent. This particular disinfectant kills MRSA and bacteria that cause Hepatitis B and HIV.
While this solution obviously won’t stop 100% of the bacteria that leave or enter the hospital from infecting people, it will stop some. The longer people stand on the mats, the more bacteria will be killed off by the strong disinfectant. We know that it is not feasible to ask people to stand on a mat in the entrances and exits for 5 minutes so all the bacteria can be killed off. We only ask that they walk over the mats so at least some potentially harmful bacteria will be killed off.
1) Cirz RT, Chin JK, Andes DR, de Crécy-Lagard V, Craig WA, et al. (2005) Inhibition of Mutation and Combating the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance. PLoS Biol 3(6): e176. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030176
2) Drobniewski F, Balabanova Y, Zakamova E, Nikolayevskyy V, Fedorin I
(2007) Rates of Latent Tuberculosis in Health Care Staff in Russia.
PLoS Med 4(2): e55. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040055
3) LELIE‘VRE,HERVE´, , LINA,GERARD, JONES,MARK E., OLIVE,CLAUDE, and FOREY,FRANC¸OISE. "Emergence and spread in French hospitals of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus with increasing susceptibility to Gentamicin and other antibiotics." Journal on Clinical microbiology 37.11 (1999): 3452-3457. Web. 30 Sep 2009.
4) (Esiobu, N., L. Armenta, and J. Ike. “Antibacterial Resistance in Soil and Water Environments.” PLoS (2002). Florida Atlantic University. Web.)
5) D’Agata, Erika M., Myrielle Dupont-Rouzeyrol, Pierre Malga, Damien
Oliver, and Shigui Ruan. "The Impact of Different Antibiotic Regimens
on the Emergence of Antimicrobial-Resistant." (2007). PLoS. Web.
