TORONTO - Ontario's auditor general says a study of selected hospitals has found they have programs to prevent and control hospital-acquired infections like C. difficile and MRSA, but there is much room for improvement.
Jim McCarter tabled a special report Monday showing that more must be done to prevent patients from picking up potentially serious infections while in hospital.
The audit of three hospitals of different sizes in Toronto, Ottawa and Windsor found they were promoting good hand-washing practices, judicious use of antibiotics and flagging rooms of patients with serious infectious diseases.
But McCarter's report found hand-washing compliance still falls short of optimal and the hospitals had different procedures to ensure patients were screened for antibiotic-resistant superbugs as MRSA.
None of the hospitals had systems to monitor use of gloves, gowns and masks, or whether medical equipment had been properly sterilized.
The special report follows the Ontario government's disclosure Friday of the number of cases of the sometimes deadly Clostridium difficile at the province's 157 hospitals.
More than 200,000 patients contract infections in Canadian hospitals each year, resulting in 8,000 to 12,000 deaths.
