Hospital: take only your old stuff- toss it on exit.

This idea is kind of overkill. Just soak everything in Control III for an hour when you get home and forget about it. Or why doesn't everybody run the food they serve at the hospital thru their own portable autoclave? Bring a hepa-filter system to clean the air that is in the room? Don't forget to replace the water in the toilet with distilled water so when one flushes there isn't a killer mist injected into the room's air. The list goes on and on. EDIT: Rewritten to the impersonal third person so the OP isn't offended (see the OP's reply below) even though the OP's name was never mentioned in 'quote' or in 'text' in the first place.

Sir NoddinOff wrote:This idea is kind of overkill. Just soak everything in Control III for an hour when you get home and forget about it. Or why don't you run the food they serve at the hospital thru a portable autoclave? Bring your own hepa-filter system to clean the air you breathe? Don't forget to replace the water in the toilet with distilled water so when you flush there isn't a killer mist injected into the room's air. The list goes on and on.

If you read the post it was the hospitals idea not mine. It is one that I would follow in the future . I know your theory , why even wash your hands ever! Do as you like , I like it now that doctors wash their hands and such .

Hawthorne wrote:I think lack of through hand washing is the very worst problem in all hospitals! That's by staff, patients AND visitors! Most infections could be virtually eliminated if everyone thoroughly washed their hands.

The hospitals in the city where I live have hand sanitizer dispensers just inside every entrance/exit and outside every patient room with signs encouraging their use. When my husband was in last March, I saw people ( staff, patients and visitors) not using them all the time!

I was in the hospital for 3 days last month for my Thyroid surgery (one day was in ICU). Every single person upon entry and exit used the hand sanitizer dispensers inside my room. I used my CPAP without issues. I made sure to use bottled water. But I also brought my old hose and masks.

My one recommendation is to buy one of these (only $6) to have with you if you need to be on oxygen and do NOT use FFM.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/oxygen ... apter.html

I'm glad that the hand sanitizers were used at the hospital where you were. I was just saying that I noted that they were not used consistently in the hospital where my husband was in March.

I have a monthly trip to a different hospital in the city where I live. I am there for 2 1/2 hours for an IV drug infusion. I use the sanitizer when I enter and when I leave and this is just outpatient stuff. I don't see many people doing that. The staff at this hospital, I'm glad to say, are much more diligent about hand cleaning!

The oxygen adapter is a good idea $6.00 well spent, in my opinion! I have one in the cpap bag I keep ready for travel or hospitalization at all times. In that bag I have a machine and the power cord, a hose and a mask, along with the oxygen adapter, some mask wipes and a copy of my cpap prescription.

My sister-in-law orders her infusion drugs mail order; and pays a nurse to administer it at home.
She and her friend have coffee and a nice visit, and my SIL doesn't have to drive, look for parking,
or spend hours waiting in a germ-infested facility. (and she saves money!)

Sounds great BUT my situation is different, as are all situations.

First - my drug must be mixed fresh when I arrive at the hospital.
Second - the Government pays for mine ( I could not afford it otherwise) so I have to go where they want me to go.
Third - I am in Canada so it's all different.

My husband (we're both retired and this hospital is not very far from us) drives me there and picks me up when I am finished so the driving and parking is not really an issue for me.

The only thing about your SIL situation that I could afford is the nurse coming in to administer the drug!!

I am not concerned about the germs at this hospital. As I said, these nurses are obsessive about cleanliness. They use hand sanitizer, wear rubber gloves for certain aspects of the infusion process and wipe each recliner with a disinfectant as each new patient arrives. The take every precaution to avoid any infection. They will not give me the drug if I have or am getting over even a cold!

1 of the local hospitals just built a brand new facility about a year ago.

There are hand sanitizers in EVERY room.
Employees HAVE to use it each time they enter the room.
And if they don't, the patient and / or visitors can easily see that and the employees know it.

And EVERY room is a private room.

Thankfully, I have NOT been a patient there, but I have been there to see others several times.

If I had to use my APAP in the Hospital, I would change only the filter when I got home.
Everything else could be adequately cleaned.
I might also consider having my wife periodically bring me a new filter & freshly cleaned mask, cushion, & hose.

I would rather bring my own then to ASS-U-ME the hospital one was adequately cleaned.

A hospital is just about worst place there is to pick up an infection because of all the antibiotics in use, as a result they are a breeding ground for drug resistant strains.

All major Hospitals in the US and I suspect ALL Hospitals have a map of their facility showing the locations of every variety of drug resistant bacteria that has been identified in their facility.

I've several friends and relatives who've picked up MSRAs in Hospitals and those kinds of infections can be deadly as sometimes they essentially untreatable because they resistant to almost every common antibiotic and unhappily are capable of sharing resistance with other bacteria.

Be cheap if you want or unbelieving if you will, but the subject line of the original post is exactly on target, and it might save your life, as could the admonition to WASH YOUR HANDS.

Safty First, don't go to places where sick people are, they are very giving people, they can't wait to give you what they have. Jim

I love the responses , maybe it will help to get a mental plan going in case we have to go to a facility. We most likely will have to have others get us our stuff if we have an emergency . A bag of old clean stuff with good cushions , hose ,filter, old mask at a spot your helpers could find them or in a certain drawer. . Most of these helpers will not be familiar with cpap equipment so make it easy to grab.
Remember the bag most of us had prepared for our first child birthing . And us helpless guys who couldn't find it unless it was all ready and brightly colored.
Anything to get us comfortable and though a rough spot and back home again if we are cpap dependent . This also could be your backup stuff and travel bag.
Just some thoughts to keep you well. We need our sleep.

knightlite wrote:I love the responses , maybe it will help to get a mental plan going in case we have to go to a facility. We most likely will have to have others get us our stuff if we have an emergency . A bag of old clean stuff with good cushions , hose ,filter, old mask at a spot your helpers could find them or in a certain drawer. . Most of these helpers will not be familiar with cpap equipment so make it easy to grab.
Remember the bag most of us had prepared for our first child birthing . And us helpless guys who couldn't find it unless it was all ready and brightly colored.
Anything to get us comfortable and though a rough spot and back home again if we are cpap dependent . This also could be your backup stuff and travel bag.
Just some thoughts to keep you well. We need our sleep.

I have this note taped to our bedroom mirror. This helps the wife in making sure I get all the stuff I need in the hospital (she had to use it twice since on cpap therapy - ran into an angry lady with a beer bottle and a tree):

Cpap Equipment to Take to the Hospital (put into bag):
• Cpap machine (on bedstand)
• Cpap mask
• Orange extension cord
• Wipes
• Cpap pillow


Sheriff

Two years ago I spent two weeks in hospital. All staff practiced infection control and universal barrier standards. On everything but their phones. They went from room to room all day long, shift after shift never wiping down phones. I worked with FEMA in planning and trai.ing cor pandemic flu events. There was some equipment in my departmens mission that could not be properly decontaminated witbout destroying it. It was our communications equipment. Our curent plan is to keep our more expensive equipment out of the hot zone and contained. Inside the hot zone we use a minimum of the cheapest equipment possible and put it in the incinerator post event. Not cbeap but lessons chance of carrying contamination away from event.

If I end up in hospital for an extended stay now that I am on xpap I will have my wife go pick up a brick, bring my old mask and hose then will just through in trash when I check out. I cant imagine the idea of bringing a staff infection in my house. Once staff sets in most of us will never get it mitigated.

hueyville wrote: once staff sets in most of us will never get it mitigated.

Yes once you get a few staff in your office they multiple so fast. Before you know it you have 200 of the little suckers wanting to work for you...lol

We all live with staph and MRSA on a daily basis and just don't realize it unless it gets into a cut or wound. I got a staph infection from a paper cut at home.

The best place to catch an infection is in the hospital. One hospital I know found they were spreading a very bad bacterial pneumonia with their "bird" breathing machine used to treat patients with asthma COPD and other breathing problems.

How coincidental that this was posted now. I've had a hell of an awful week - my mother-in-law, who I dearly love had her leg amputated just below the knee. Reason was MRSA infection in the bone. She has lots of medical issues, has a surgery done every other month, so no surprise that she is a MRSA carrier, but the loss of her leg is still a shock. I will take the advice of the OP & toss all supplies except machine which I'll clean with bleach.

Without this post I would not have thought about my CPAP supplies. Many thanks to the OP.

Jen