Be a Safe Patient.

We are often patients with a pain in stomach, accident, broken bone, or any other disease or a major ill. Now a days it is very important to know the infection prevention procedures. As in the past 10yrs alone, there have been more than 30 outbreaks of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in non-hospital health care settings such as outpatient clinics, dialysis centers, and long-term care facilities.

Here are 10 ways to be a safe patient:

1. Speak up

Talk to your doctor about any worries you have about your safety issues and what is being done in order to protect you.

2. Keeping hands clean.

If the doctor or the provider does not clean their hands, please ask them to do so. Also remind your loved ones and visitors. Washing hands can prevent the spread of infection to a great deal.

3. Ask if you still need a central line catheter or urinary catheter.

Leaving a catheter in a place too long increases the risk of getting an infection.

4. Ask your health care provider, `to use a new needle, new syringe, and a new vial for this procedure or injection` Health care providers are not allowed to reuse a needle or syringe on more than one patient.

5. Be careful with medications.

Avoid taking too much medicine by following package directions. Also, to avoid harmful drug interactions, tell your doctor about all the medicines you are taking.

6. Get Smart about antibiotics.

Help prevent antibiotic resistance by taking all your antibiotics as prescribed, and not sharing your antibiotics with other people. Remember that antibiotics don’t work against viruses like the ones that cause the common cold.

7. Prepare for surgery.

There are things you can do to reduce your risk of getting a surgical site infection. Talk to your doctor to learn what you should do to prepare for surgery. Let your doctor know about other medical problems you have, for eg. an allergy.

8. Watch out for diarrhea.

Tell the doctor if you have problems severe diarrhea, especially if you are also taking an antibiotic.

9. Know the signs and symptoms of infection.

Some skin infections, like MRSA, appear as redness, pain, or drainage at an IV catheter site or surgical incision site, and a fever. Tell your doctor if you have these symptoms well in advance.

10. Get your flu shot.

Protect yourself against the flu and other complications by getting vaccinated.
 
By following these 10 steps you can help yourself make health care safer and help prevent health care-associated with infections.
 
Source