Each year about 1.7 million U.S. hospital patients acquire an infection while in the hospital. Doing your part to prevent them can keep you safe.

Although most of the responsibility of preventing infection after surgery lies in the hands of doctors and hospitals, patients play an important role as well.

“Hospitals and surgeons have strict guidelines to help prevent infections, but there’s a lot patients can do to reduce their risk,” says Priya Sampathkumar, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Knowing as much as they can about the procedure and what is being done to guard against infection is a good place to start.”

Other safeguards include:

• Get in the best possible health you can before you enter the hospital. To achieve optimum health, Sampathkumar suggests you:
  • Make sure your vaccines are up to date. Get a flu shot in the fall, ask your doctor if you should get a pneumonia shot, and make sure your tetanus vaccination is up to date.
  • Stop smoking. Smokers have an increased risk for infection and other complications after surgery. In one study of 120 smokers undergoing knee or hip replacement, those who smoked had six times the number of wound infections as those who quit six to eight weeks before surgery.
  • If you have diabetes, make sure it’s under control before your surgery date.

    “If you have high blood sugar, you have an increased risk for infection,” Sampathkumar cautions.

  • Treat any existing infections. This includes all infections, not just those near the surgery site. Postpone any elective surgery until the infection is gone.
  • Attain a healthy weight. People who are overweight tend to have a higher risk for infection.
• Choose your surgeon carefully. Find a board certified surgeon to perform the operation, and ask about the doctor’s rate of infection for the operation you’re having.
• Evaluate local hospitals. Choose an accredited hospital for your procedure. The following Internet sites provide hospital ratings: HealthGrades (www.healthgrades.com) and the Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org/cp).
• Ask all doctors, medical staff, and visitors to clean their hands before touching you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites hand washing as the single most effective way to control infection.

  “There’s been a lot more attention paid to the importance of clean hands, so most doctors and nurses do this as a matter of course,” Sampathkumar advises. “However, if you don’t see a person wash or sanitize his or her hands in front of you, request that he or she do so.”

• Keep as clean as you can. Wash your own hands carefully before eating and after using the bathroom.
• Insist on proper catheter use. Ask your doctor or nurse if it’s absolutely necessary that you have a urinary catheter, and if so, to remove it as soon as possible.
• Ask anyone who is coughing to wear a mask or stay more than 6 feet away from you. Shielding yourself from people with upper respiratory infections can reduce the likelihood of transmitting viruses through the air.

  “Ask family members and friends to postpone their visits if they have a cold or another illness,” Sampathkumar says.

Barbara Floria spoke with Priya Sampathkumar, M.D., infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.com.

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