Griffith Base Hospital saw a small uptick in cases of 'golden staph' infections in 2018-19 from the previous year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicates the hospital saw three cases of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections - commonly referred to as 'golden staph' - across a total of 29,043 patient days under surveillance during the 2018-19 reporting period at a rate of 1.03 cases per 10,000 patient bed days and a small increase from two reported cases in 2017-18.
Hospitals in Orange, Coffs Harbour and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai also recorded three cases during the period.
Senior health statistician at the Murrumbidgee Local Health District David Buckley said the rates of golden staph infections in public hospitals are subject to rigorous surveillance and across the wider district, a lower rate of infections during the 2019 calendar year was recorded.
"The rate of infections [in the MLHD] was 0.40 per 10,000 patient bed days, which is considerably less than the Australian average of 0.75," Mr Buckley said.
Griffith hospital has seen a total of 10 cases of infection since 2011-12, with the information coming as the AIHW reports a 'stable' infection rate across the last five years in the nation's public hospitals.
Nationally, a total of 1,573 cases were reported over 2018-19, a slight increase from the 1,491 cases reported in 2017-18.
Infections which were treatable with common antibiotics saw an increase from 78 per cent to 82 per cent between 2014-15 and 2018-19.
READ MORE
AIHW spokesperson Dr Adrian Webster said a common mode of bacteria transmission in public hospitals is via the hands of workers.
"Staphylococcus aureus bacteria are most commonly transmitted via the hands of healthcare workers,' Dr Webster said.
MLHD's clinical nurse consultant for infection, prevention and control Mary-Clare Smith said all staff in the district actively participate in the National Hand Hygiene initiative.
"Hand hygiene is a simple and highly effective way to ensure patient safety and we know improving the hand hygiene of health workers is the single most effective way to reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections," Ms Smith said.
"At MLHD, we are continually looking for new opportunities and methods to improve patient safety and improving hand hygiene and reducing infections has been an important part of our patient safety commitment across our hospitals for many years.
"We educate all our health workers in the World Health Organisation 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene - when and how to clean your hands using soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub when in contact with the patient, and we make it as easy as possible for healthcare workers to perform hand hygiene by ensuring availability of alcohol-based hand rub within the patient care area."