HIQA inspection discovers ‘high risk’ infection issue at Mayo General

HIQA inspection discovers ‘high risk’ infection issue at Mayo General


Report finds fault with hospital maintenance and management of patient equipment in a medical ward

Edwin McGreal

A ‘high risk’ infection issue was one of several issues identified in two medical wards at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar by HIQA inspectors after an unannounced inspection last month.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report from their visit for the purpose of monitoring for the prevention and control of infections is due to be released this week. A copy of the report has been seen by The Mayo News.
The report details a ‘high risk’ issue which arose from their unannounced inspection of Mayo General Hospital. The inspection focused on Ward A (Medical) and Ward D (Surgical) and took place on July 3 last. Ward A was the ward which was highlighted the most in the report and it was there that the ‘high risk’ issue arose.
The ‘high risk’ issue was where a patient, being treated in isolation due to a ‘suspected airborne communicable/transmissible infection’ was being treated in a room where the door was open, directly out to the main corridor on the ward.
“This finding posed a potential risk of spread of healthcare associated infections to other patients, staff and visitors to the ward,” said the report.

High risk
The report said the issue was deemed by the inspectors to present ‘a high risk to the health and welfare of patients, staff and visitors, and which required immediate mitigation’. The Ward Manager and the General Manager of the hospital were informed of the issue at the time of the inspection.
The report said the hospital’s response was ‘prompt and comprehensive’. The hospital had outlined the ‘corrective actions that had been taken to address the immediate high risk and the measures that would be implemented to ensure this did not occur elsewhere in the hospital in the future’.
Many other issues were raised by the HIQA report. The report stated that ‘overall, the maintenance and management of patient equipment on Ward A was of concern to the authority’ while ‘various levels of improvement in the maintenance and management of the environment were identified as being required on both wards’ which were part of the inspection.
More particularly, the report said the ‘cleanliness of equipment associated with blood monitoring’ was an issue on both wards. These included red stains found on the surface of glucometers and the failure to clean an integrated sharps tray used for phlebotomy, the taking of blood.
Standards essential
The report stated the standard precautions in this regard were ‘essential in preventing transmission’ of diseases such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
The report said the ‘cleanliness’ of patient toilets and shower rooms was an issue, especially on Ward A while the Authority observed, in Ward A, some activities which it said did not comply with best practice.
With regard to hand hygiene, the report stated that while the hospital had achieved 91.4 per cent compliance in the national hand hygiene audit of May/June 2014 (above the HSE’s national target of 90 per cent), hand hygiene compliance on the day of the inspection was at only 63 per cent (17 of 27 hand hygiene opportunities taken).