Reputation is an ever-changing thing – it can be made or destroyed in a matter of seconds.
A hospital’s reputation, in particular, is constantly reconsidered and re-evaluated.
In the span of months, a hospital’s reputation can move positively and negatively, reflecting the impact of news coverage, public rating or financial status.
One of the major features that can impact a hospital’s reputation is its infection control procedures and their effectiveness.
What is infection control?
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) poses a challenge to healthcare facilities, like hospitals, worldwide.
Healthcare acquired infections (HCAIs) can be spread rapidly throughout hospitals, resulting in patients admitted for specific healthcare action catching a new or different infection during their stay.
In recent times, COVID-19 has posed a serious threat within hospitals, with The Lancet reporting that 1 in 10 coronavirus infections treated in UK hospitals was acquired within the hospital. With COVID and all other infections, every hospital will have a standard set of infection control procedures in place to tackle the spread of infections.
IPC is increasingly important in recent times, and as we’ve already mentioned, there have been a rise in the number of healthcare acquired infections with WHO estimating that 7% of all patients admitted to healthcare facilities acquiring at least one new infection.
What happens when infection control fails?
IPC teams across the world are under an enormous amount of pressure at any given time, trying to keep the multitude of different infections present in hospitals at bay.
However, illnesses are constantly evolving, and the challenge of infection spread is always substantial and difficult to manage.
What works for one illness may not always work for another.
Despite having stringent policies and procedures in place, infections can spread through hospitals at a rapid rate, and it’s important to work out what medium they are spreading through.
Infection control and hospital reputation
There are a variety of things that can impact the reputation of a hospital.
Word of mouth, social media and media coverage are the biggest factors. Word of mouth includes things that current and past patients say, as well as what physicians say about facilities to their patients.
Online forums and social media sites make it incredibly easy to spread the word if a hospital isn’t providing sufficient care to its patients, and this can also lead to reports in the media of mistreatment or infection breakouts.
When an infection breaks out in a hospital, it’s important that proper procedures are followed to limit this, or the hospital will find its reputation impacted.
If patients enter the hospital for standard treatment, for example, and end up with an infection that impacts their health drastically, it will appear that the hospital has made them ‘sicker’ than when they initially arrived.
Whilst this can be through sheer coincidence, this still doesn’t look good for the hospital and their infection control policies.
Hospitals are places that are supposed to make us better, not worse – and if a hospital or other healthcare facility has continuing issues with infection spread, it will create a sense of distrust in the facility and its staff.
Unfortunately, good news rarely travels as quickly as bad news; if there is an outbreak or a persistent issue with disease transmission, a story can pick up speed and do irreparable damage to a hospital.
What are the impacts of a bad reputation for a hospital?
In the case of stories of disease transmission being picked up by local or national news media, it could lead to costly public relations responses and these funds could be directed into the hospital itself.
Beyond this, it will make patients less likely to trust this hospital, and may result in other hospitals in the area becoming overwhelmed with an influx of patients that could be treated elsewhere.
Staff may be less likely to want to work there – especially as the spread of infections is almost as harmful to nurses, doctors, porters etc as it is to patients.
If the hospital itself is already on the brink of crisis, a bad reputation could lead it to disrepair, and it could never recover.
How to improve infection control procedures
Generally, many infections could be preventable through the proper protocols.
Hospital staff should adopt strict infection control procedures as standard, but there are other elements to improving IPC.
Adopting medical devices which actively limit the spread of infections is one way hospitals could see an improvement, but a major factor in improving infection control is ensuring that the hospital is cleaned appropriately and healthcare waste management is carried out correctly.
Outsourcing cleaning to an external company is one way you can guarantee that cleaning procedures are carried out thoroughly and effectively.
Samsic UK are experienced within the healthcare sector, understanding the restricted budgets and conditions in which to carry out the appropriate cleaning measures.
We use chemical free, eco-friendly and low toxin cleaning agents to ensure that your healthcare facility is clean and safe, without impacting the health of your patients or staff.
Our cleaning processes are based on BISCs approved methodologies – we know how to make your workspaces safe, clean and hygienic.
More information on how we can help you to limit the spread of infections in hospitals and protect your reputation can be found here
