Nursing Home Residents Who Visit the ER Are Vulnerable to Infections
Posted in Featured Articles on February 17, 2012A new study shows that nursing home residents who visit the emergency room have three times the risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections as residents who remain in the nursing home.
Researchers speculate that they may be picking up pathogens from staff or other patients while they are in the waiting room or in the exam room. Equally serious, many times they bring those infections back to the nursing home with them, causing an outbreak that infects other patients.
The study was undertaken by researchers at McGill University in Montreal and involved nursing home residents in Quebec and Ontario.
Elderly people are more susceptible to respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to the flu: 18,000 patients over the age of 65 die each year die due to it. Unfortunately, flu vaccines are only 50-60% effective in reducing the chances of hospitalization for nursing home residents who come down with influenza. The consequences of an influenza outbreak are very serious. One recent study showed that one out of every 100 nursing home residents infected with the flu will die, and the cost of a flu outbreak will be more than $6,000 for 30 days.
Gastrointestinal infections also hit the elderly particularly hard. As our bodies age, our immune cells respond more slowly, providing less resistance to foreign pathogens. The gastrointestinal tract is more easily inflamed.
It is incumbent on nursing homes to ensure that patients who return from the hospital do not bring back infections that can put other residents at risk. Additional precautions to protect nursing home residents and other staff should be taken with all returning patients for at least 5-7 days after a resident comes back from the emergency room.
In general, nursing homes should institute precautions that can protect all residents. For example, only a few Kentucky nursing homes require their staff to get flu vaccines, but this is a simple precaution that can have a major effect on residents’ health.
It’s even more important for a nursing home to maintain good hygiene – consistent hand washing, for example, and the frequent wiping of surfaces like door handles prevent germs from spreading.
Nursing homes are required to provide a safe and healthy environment for the often vulnerable residents who live there. This includes taking simple, common sense precautions to protect their health, including additional monitoring to patients who have just returned from the emergency room.
More Information:
Time in ER Sends Infection Back to Nursing Home
Risk of infection following a visit to the emergency department: a cohort study
Elderly Have Higher Risk For Cardiovascular, Respiratory Disease
