Chapter 520: Gathering

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Call the Department of Infection Control over and report the recent situation of the infection in the hospital.” Hospital Director Wu Zhisheng drove back to the hospital.

His secretary who knew him very well was sitting at the backseat. She felt anxious, as if she was surrounded by a group of monkeys from Mount Emei. When she got off the car, the secretary ran off to find people.

The hospital director’s mood was extremely low, so she was scared that she might be scolded as well, even though she was innocent.

After a short while, the bosses who had a celebration dinner just now gathered with every other department director who stayed in the hospital.

Every department director sat at a corner in the luxuriously renovated meeting room in Yun Hua Hospital. They looked like gorillas in the forest.

“Have you reported any case of nosocomial infection?”

“Twice in a week? Why didn’t anyone say anything?”

“Two people died in the Neurosurgery Department, yet no one said anything.”

“Isn’t it normal for the Neurosurgery Department to have people dying?”

The conversations in the hospital were always general yet cruel.

The department directors exchanged their information while they thought of ways to put the blame on the Department of Infection Control or any other department.

Cases of nosocomial infection happened in every department in every hospital every year. The most commonly seen type of nosocomial infection in the country, which was hospital-acquired pneumonia, had a 0.5% to 5% incidence rate, and Yun Hua Hospital was ranked in the middle.

Gastroenteritis was just as common, and it was also something that the Department of Infection Control used as their lecture tool once in a while.

However, when nosocomial infection within the department spread to the entire hospital, this problem could not be ignored.

“Is there any result now?” The hospital director pushed the door to come in. He did not give any greeting or show a smile. His gaze landed first on the director of the Department of Infection Control, who was about to leave.

The director from every department obediently found their seats and sat down before they became the ones to be blamed.

“By looking at the recent analysis on nosocomial infection in the recent period, it should be MRSA [1],” the director of the Department of Infection Control replied, even though he felt as if he had just received a very huge problem in his hands.

MRSA was Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and it was also the most commonly seen multidrug-resistant organism.

If it were just a normal Staphylococcus aureus without any multidrug resistant properties, it was just a small bacteria that could be killed by penicillin.

However, after adding the words “methicillin-resistant”, its lethality increased tremendously. Only a few types of antibiotics could still have some effect on it. The worst thing was, all antibiotic therapy would possess some negative effects on the patients.

The most serious part was that even with the latest antibiotics, MRSA infection would still cause at least one-fifth of mortality rate among the patients infected.

In short, if the outbreak were well controlled, only two out of ten patients would die. When the antibiotic therapy were put into practice, it was normal for three to five patients to die of this outbreak.

Such a mortality rate would make MRSA become very scary.

“Is it recent?” The hospital director stared at his face and asked, “So, what are the precautions taken for the problem when it occurred recently? What caused this?”

The director of the Department of Infection Control found it hard to say anything at all.

Although it was a drug resistant strain, the detection rate of MRSA in the current hospital environment was too high. Any tertiary Grade A hospital that was of higher standard would have at least 40% detection rate. However, the detection rate was not proportional with the pathogenic ratio, and it did not signify outbreak.

It was normal for one department to have MRSA, but if it happened to the entire hospital, it would definitely be the fault of the Department of Infection Control.

Taking the blame for others while they watched others argue was the life of the Department of Infection Control.

It was not the first time the director of the Department of Infection Control took the blame for somebody else. He organized his train of thought and said, “There were really flaws in the management of our Department of Infection Control. First, we set a rule that each department only needs to summarize their infection cases and report to us once each week. But when any department does turn out to have any infection cases, we did not urge them to report to us immediately and did not make an overall analysis. Secondly, it takes a longer time to confirm that the pathogen is MRSA. Generally, we need at least 48 hours or more for the confirmation report. A long time will be taken from the identification to confirmation, and this has led to more infection cases before we realized it at a later date. Thirdly, there are more carriers of MRSA nowadays…”

The hospital director waved his hand impatiently and said, “If you want the pass the blame to someone else, do it later. Let’s talk about the current situation first.”

The Department of Infection Control was highly skilled in passing the blame to others as well, even though they were always blamed for infection incidents in the hospital. This skill was developed by the nature of this department, and it was just like how a doctor who was in the Gynaecology Department would have experience in staying up late after working some time in that department, along with the doctors from the Cardiology Department who would know how to hold their pee in them, as well as orthopedists, who gradually knew how to spend their money…

Once the director of the Department of Infection Control decided to do all he could to pass the blame to others, today’s meeting would definitely end up with everyone trying to pass the blame to others nonstop.

The hospital director resolutely all acts of searching for who was responsible and controlled his emotions. The director of the Department of Infection Control quietly sighed.

Before the hospital director changed his mind, the director of the Department of Infection Control immediately said, “From the summary we have now, in the past week, three MRSA reports were made by the Respiratory Medicine Department, two cases from the Oncology Department… Both Gynaecology Department and Pediatrics reported two cases…”

As he explained, the expressions of all department directors became serious.

The director of the Department of Infection Control first reported the cases from the Department of Internal Medicine and Gynaecology Department, followed by the Department of Surgery. “Three cases of MRSA appeared in the Neurosurgery Department and another three cases at the Cardiothoracic Department, then one from the Hand Surgery Department…”

The expression of the hospital director became darker.

The bacteria in the Department of Internal Medicine was usually more complicated than the Department of Surgery. For example, the Respiratory Medicine Department always had the patients with MRSA, and they would sometimes even admit patients with MRSA from outside. For the Department of Internal Medicine, infection from multidrug-resistant organisms was no longer something new, and two or three cases could not be considered as an outbreak.

However, if the Department of Surgery also had frequent reports of MRSA, that showed that the problem was quite serious now.

“Print me a copy and show it to me.” The hospital director did not want to just listen to the report, so he told the secretary who sat beside him to print out the report. Then, the secretary immediately printed out and typed out the meeting records.

The hospital director read from the top to the bottom and counted silently.

After he had gone through the report, he suddenly frowned, “Department Director Huo, you didn’t report any nosocomial infections from the Emergency Department?”

“We are sure there is none. I have checked a few times,” Huo Congjun replied confidently.

The hospital director did not trust that. Before he said anything, other directors from other departments frowned. “Old Huo, there’s no meaning if you try to appear innocent now. Everyone knows the Emergency Department is a breeding ground for nosocomial infections. We don’t care that your department has been upgraded to an Emergency Medical Center. Don’t try to be outstanding now.”

“What if my department really does not have this? Should I inject you with MRSA?” Huo Congjun’s voice was clear and could be heard in the entire room. He sounded just like a rifle.

The hospital director was not swayed, and he said, “Department Director Huo, we can even find carriers of MRSA on healthy individuals. It’s not embarrassing if it is found at the Emergency Medical Center. We’re about to report this to the higher ups now. There is no need to hide it.”

“We really don’t have any MRSA cases,” Huo Congjun said firmly.

“What about those suspected to have?”

“No suspicious case as well.” Huo Congjun paused for a moment and said sternly, “I have asked the doctors to check again. Right now, it’s not that I don’t want to report the cases, but there is no cases for me to report.”

If there were no medical cases, there were simply no medical cases. If they wanted to report the matter to higher ups now, they had to give up all specific information, including suspected cases. Even if they created it, they could not.

The hospital director looked at director of the Department of Infection Control with a dark look. “What is going on now? There are no cases of MRSA reported from the Emergency Medical Center, so does this mean it’s a complete nosocomial infection?”

The director of the Department of Infection Control silently made a sarcastic quip in his heart, ‘Which nosocomial infection doesn’t start in the hospital? Could it be counted as a nosocomial infection if the case came in from outside the hospital?’

However, he could also understand what the hospital director meant. The Emergency Center was a department with most complicated number of personnel, and it was very difficult to manage. It also had a large number of patients who came for consultation. When a department like this was not infected, it was something worthy of thought.

The director of the Department of Infection Control thought carefully and said, “The Emergency Medical Center has the best among all departments in Nosocomial Infection Regulations, and they also carry out those regulations the best…”

Huo Congjun smiled without saying anything.

He had been scolding people for many years, so he was not afraid of bullcrap from other people.

“So, are you saying that the Emergency Medical Center set up a good regulation and executed it well, hence they stop the outbreak of infection in their department?” the hospital director said very seriously.

“There is no case of nosocomial infection outbreak that can be caused by one factor. Similarly, if a part of the prevention regulations can be carried out well, it can possibly stop nosocomial infection outbreak… Our current preventive strategy is multiple prevention. Therefore, if every department can strictly follow the Nosocomial Infection Regulation or maybe follow most of the Nosocomial Infection Regulation, the outbreak risk will not be very high…” The director of the Department of Infection Control took this opportunity to cast the blame.

The hospital director was not affected at all. He said, “Enforcing the execution of Nosocomial Infection Regulation is the responsibility of the Department of Infection Control. Now, let’s not talk about it first. Department Director Huo, how did you execute it in your department?”

“For us, it’s mainly Ling Ran who focuses on nosocomial infection prevention. I still remember that there was a period of time where he renewed the Nosocomial Infection Regulation and gathered up a team to execute it. Now, I can tell he is doing a good job.” Huo Congjun smirked as he indirectly replied to what the director of the Department of Infection Control had just said.

“Doctor Ling, huh…?” The hospital director had hosted a celebration dinner just now. He thought about it deeply before he nodded and said, “Then, let’s ask Doctor Ling to explain the situation. A nosocomial infection outbreak is a disastrous incident. When cases of nosocomial infection occur, we do not only need to check and make up for the deficiencies in our preventive measures, but also have to look at the brighter side.”

The hospital director had his secretary ask Ling Ran to come over before he turned around again and asked, “We’ll revise the scale and coverage for MRSA, discuss a counterplan, and I’ll the matter report to the superiors. Now, is there any methods where we can execute immediately?”

The director of the Department of Infection Control felt anxious from all the questions, while Huo Congjun quietly took out his phone and sent a message. He felt slightly proud and happy.

Although he did not really support Ling Ran in dealing with nosocomial infection in such a manner, he did not oppose it very firmly. This could be considered the standards of a leader.

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