Re: Speaking out for patients

Dr Richardson’s editorial on the C. difficile outbreak at Burnaby General Hospital [Speaking out for patients, BCMJ 2012;54:165] was a powerful reminder of the risks for patients who acquire nosocomial infections in our facilities. It is important that physicians speak out about safety concerns and ensure that corrective action can be taken.

However, actions speak louder than words, as the saying goes. All physicians need to contribute to keeping our patients safe by strict attention to hand hygiene. Sadly the hand hygiene rates for Burnaby General physicians was 37.8% for the last fiscal year, a similar rate for many sites in Fraser Health. 

As we raise the awareness about C. difficile in our hospitals, physicians have to lead the change for better in­fection control practices by dramatically improving our hand hygiene rates.

We must acknowledge our own role in the spread of these infections and act accordingly.
—Anne Clarke, MD
Medical Director
Emergency Program, FHA

Anne I. Clarke, MD. Re: Speaking out for patients. BCMJ, Vol. 54, No. 6, July, August, 2012, Page(s) 276 - Letters.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

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