DOH trains medical practitioners on quality disinfection and sterilization standards

The Standards Development Division of the Department of Health (DOH) in partnership with 3M Philippines hold a seminar on Quality Disinfection and Sterilization Standards at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) last 4-8 June 2012.

The seminar aimed to call attention for the urgent need to improved hospital sterilization standards and to lower the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in the Philippines.

The training was attended by doctors, nurses, medical technologists, hospital supervisors and hospital regulatory officers from different public and private hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Central Luzon.

According to Dr. Normal Lu, Regional Clinical Consultant of 3M Asia Pacific, “Infectious diseases are the highest cause of death in human history. Inside the operating room, we can prevent this by making surgical instruments free from organic microbes. Failure to follow processes for proper cleaning, sterilizing and packaging of critical medical devices will harm the patient and cause the hospital more damage.”

She also furthered that patient safety is of utmost importance. “Next to treating patients, their safety should be prioritized.” Through this workshop, we wanted to establish the ideal sterilization standards and come up with local guidelines that would make our hospitals conform to international standards.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections which greatly affect patients’ medical conditions. In the Philippines, over 500,000 patients contract HAIs annually and about 10% of die due to these infections.

HAIs can lead to “prolonged hospital stays, unnecessary long-term disabilities, risk of higher resistance to life-saving medications, additional cost for the patient and family and even death.”