BLS Infection Control

Is anyone aware of any research on the use of BSI, specifically gloves, by BLS? We're all taught "BSI, Scene Safety" the minute we start the class, but does anyone have statistical evidence that the way we were BSI works? Having watched crew after crew come to the ED with the same gloves on that they started the call with, I have to assume that the instruction we receive actually PROMOTES infections by having potential bloodborne pathogens smeared over everything from the steering wheel of the rig to the pen used to sign in at the ED. I'm looking for any hard research done on this subject.

Tags: BLS, BSI, Bloodborne, ambulance, body, gloves, infections, isolation, pathogens, substance

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Permalink Reply by Jason Merrill on January 22, 2013 at 10:24pm

Has your institution published any numbers on that? I'd be really interested to see them.

Jason Merrill

dr-exmedic said:

Joe Paczkowski said:

The "gloves all time, every time, no exceptions" line of thought is up there with the insanity of 'every patient gets a NRB."

While I used think so too, our CCU has a "gloves-always" policy. They have been in the news (popular and trade) multiple times for having gone 18 months without a single central line infection, among other infection-control-related accolades, so it's tough to argue that it's a stupid policy. (Of course, that's a different patient population than the general ambulance-seeking population, but still....)

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Permalink Reply by dr-exmedic on February 3, 2013 at 4:36pm

Jason Merrill said:

Has your institution published any numbers on that? I'd be really interested to see them.

Jason Merrill

This is what I could find quickly, but I'm sure there's more. It looks at everything as a bundle, rather than the "all gloves all the time" policy separate from other things, so it may not be as helpful as you'd like.

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A nice Powerpoint by the doc responsible

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