I really don't get this.
Don't hospitals have completely over-the-top safety regulations that they must adhere to on a daily basis? How does this work in the medical field?
Being an engineer, everywhere you go is safety, safety, safety. We take every precaution, no matter how silly it seems, to prevent accidents/lost time. If you are working in an area that is elevated more than four feet you have to strap on to something. We have light screens that shut down equipment if you even fart near a piece of machinery. Mostly because if you get injured on the job the company is responsible. If you put one toe out of line in regards to safety, you are severely disciplined or fired.
Do hospitals not have the same regards for safety? If an employee gets sick because of lack of precaution on the hospitals' part, is it not the responsibility of the hospital to compensate for the damages?
My dad is a hospital inspector. You would be surprised how much negligence there is in the hospital system. Partially I believe it's because the doctors are so smart, there's often a language barrier (not just English) but the doc's primary responsibility is working on his patients, not the prep work.
It's the prep work that's left up to the lead assistants and other workers, and that's where things go
very wrong. The doctors are under the assumption that everything is taken care of, and unless there is a scouting report on their desk explicitly saying "clean these violations up or you're license could be suspended" the doctors
assume that all the prep work has been taken care of under protocol.
After someone gets a colonoscopy, the scope obviously needs to be sanitized, and
properly dried. Then, it is to be hung in a closed cabinet away from everything else. My dad tells me a telltale sign is when you open that cabinet, if there's stains on the bottom of the cabinet from dripping, you know that they didn't/don't follow the proper protocol. Think about that, even if they
did sanitize it, maybe there's still something left on there, and when you don't properly dry the scope, you're providing an environment for any hint of bacteria to multiply.
You've come into the hospital clean, and you will leave as a potential host of an illness that you didn't have when you came into the hospital.
This is absolutely no surprise to me. The only thing that's surprising is that someone is dumb enough to take Ebola lightly and sidestep every needed precaution to protect themselves.
How was that allowed? It's not like this was your everyday case, you would think all eyes would be on that particular situation
at all times.
It's in those gaps that people's lives are changed because of the holes in the system, and the disconnect between the doctors and the workers.
