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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

Surgery is never an easy choice, but infection is always something to worry about. I had jaw surgery last year which was supposed to be an outpatient procedure, but there was a complication and I had to spend the night. My main thought was "oh no, I am probably going to get some weird infection". And indeed I did! A hole opened up between my mouth and nose and it got infected. Augmentin did nothing, but the doctor did a test where they grow a culture and test every antibiotic against it, then prescribe the one that killed it. That cleared up the infection immediately and I am now in perfect health with no unnecessary holes ;)

It is really weird how we concentrate all sick people in one place, and then act surprised when they start growing weird diseases.

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> It is really weird how we concentrate all sick people in one place, and then act surprised when they start growing weird diseases.

I don't think anyone finds it that surprising really. But healthcare is expensive and centralising in-patient care is the only practical and affordable system that we have come up with so far! Key things are to maximise hygiene and minimise length of stay :)

Yeah, studies show that many healthcare professionals don't wash their hands like they are supposed to. My guess is this is the primary vector for spreading disease in hospitals. I know it's kind of annoying to scrub your hands for 30 seconds multiple times per day, but it really is such a simple fix.

On a similar note, I have never once seen someone in my office wash their hands for more than 5 seconds. Also, on several occasions I've seen someone poop and simply run water over their hands for half a second. It boggles my mind.

"seen someone poop and simply run water over their hands"

1. Why were you watching?

2. The anus may need cleaning. The hands are not supposed to need cleaning.

1. Probably a toilet with one sink per multiple toilet cabinets. I.e. the standard office one.

2. Out of your own experience, how often you clean your anus without getting your hand dirty even in the slightest?

I see no evidence that the health care system in my area is either practical or affordable.

Even weirder that we concentrate healthy moms and their newborn babies there.

That's why we usually have maternities - to give birth in places where people are NOT sick.

> It is really weird how we concentrate all sick people in one place, and then act surprised when they start growing weird diseases.

Ideally there are separate hospital buildings for patients with diseases, broken bones, new born babies, etc - often older hospitals that evolved over many decades are like that. Contrary to that are these centralized mega-structure hospital building from the 1960s to 1980s. Often the same small number of operating rooms (often centralized in one location, next to each other) are used for all kind of treatments.

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