Stony Eastern Long Island Hospital has implemented a series of routine steps to prevent infections. These steps or principles are mandatory and monitoring is done to ensure employees, doctors and visitors are following the proper infection prevention procedures.
Examples include:
- Complete and thorough hand washing.
- Use of personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns, and/or masks when caring for patients in selected situations to prevent the spread of infections.
- Use of an infection prevention checklist when putting central lines in patients, which reminds healthcare workers to:
- Clean their hands thoroughly.
- Clean the patient’s skin before insertion with an antiseptic.
- Wear the recommended sterile gown, gloves and mask.
- Place sterile barriers around the insertion site, etc.
Placing patients who are infected or colonized with a multi-drug resistant organism (MDRO’s) ex. MRSA, CRE, C. diff are placed on isolation and provided private rooms to avoid the risk of transmitting the resistant organism to other patients, staff, and visitors.
Our isolation system follows the best practice approach recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It includes standard and disease-specific isolation methods for identifying, coding, and communicating information about patients on isolation for MDRO and other reasons.
At Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, our isolation protocol is practiced throughout the Hospital for all of our patient’s safety and yours.