Chapter 354 - Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer
Chapter 354: Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer
Lu Wenbin carried a large pot in his hands and walked at full speed.
For the past month or so, the Emergency Department had undergone a lot of changes so that it could be upgraded into an Emergency Medical Center. Even Ling Ran had shifted his focus to writing research papers.
The number of surgeries performed in the Emergency Department had plummeted, and Lu Wenbin spent almost as much time in the gym as he did in the kitchen. The effects from it were astonishing. He could even easily do squats while carrying a whole pot of pork trotters, and an empty pot took no effort whatsoever.
When Lu Wenbin arrived at the wareroom behind the Emergency Medicine building, he looked around vigilantly. He only took the shortcut and walked through the building site, where construction workers were busy working, to the frontmost part of the wareroom when he saw that no one was looking at him.
The wareroom was being modified into the ward area of the Emergency Medical Center. Now that the main structure was almost completed, the construction workers rushed to complete the renovation of the building.
Lu Wenbin went straight to the cafeteria on the second floor of the east side of the wareroom. When he found that the construction of the cafeteria was completed, he was unable to hold himself back from bringing in all his kitchenware.
Unlike the narrow waiting room of the Emergency Department, the new kitchen was vast. Now that it was not in operation yet, Lu Wenbin could cook as many pork trotters as he wanted, in whatever fashion he wanted.
Lu Wenbin put down the large pot and opened the window while he was at it. He then turned on the air purifiers on both sides of the kitchen. After he stood and waited for a while at the balcony, most of the foul smell in the kitchen, which was a result of the renovation, was gone.
The renovation carried out in the Emergency Medical Center was relatively simple, and the foul smell was not strong to begin with. Lu Wenbin got used to the smell very quickly. He had no choice, as for the past few years, the hospital had been expanding using the same strategy—constructing the buildings before renovating them. And after operation commenced in those buildings, renovations would be carried out in the existing wards and operating theaters. Even if the Emergency Department was not being upgraded into an Emergency Medical Center, there would still be renovations in the department’s building.
Lu Wenbin inspected his precious pork trotters and picked a few up to make sure that the foul smell did not get onto them. He then placed them one by one into the pot.
The pork trotters were already cleaned. Lu Wenbin rented a house near the market and employed someone just to clean and pay for the pork trotters. Every morning, after Lu Wenbin chose the pork trotters he wanted, he would leave the rest to the person he employed. He would only take over when it was time to stew and cook the pork trotters.
If Lu Wenbin did not do this, he would not have had the time to carry out surgeries in the hospital.
After he placed all the pork trotters in the large pot, Lu Wenbin ceremonially took out the stew he prepared and slowly poured it into the pot.
Lu Wenbin could not help but flash a satisfied smile as he watched the dark stew splattering around the pot as they splashed against the white pork trotters.
Lu Wenbin felt the most bliss when he cooked pork trotters, and it was also when time passed the fastest for him.
Lu Wenbin only turned and called the person he had employed over to help when he was done with all the preparations. He then washed up and quickly went towards the ward area of the Emergency Department.
“Wait, have you washed your hands?” Wang Jia stood in the corridor on the left side of the ward area of the Emergency Department.
The observation rooms of the Emergency Department surrounded the atrium, and they were divided into two wings. After Ling Ran’s treatment group emerged, the entire ward on the left side was assigned to Ling Ran.
And while Huo Congjun and the others were still doubtful over Ling Ran’s abilities when it came to management, a glass door, which was used to separate the area from the rest of the Emergency Department, appeared at the frontmost part of the left side of the ward area. And young nurses were assigned to stand guard in front of the glass door in groups.
Today, Wang Jia happened to be part of the group.
Even though Lu Wenbin had bought a house and a BMW and was learning the M-Tang technique, at the end of the day, he was only a resident doctor.
Resident Doctor Lu Wenbin gazed at the young nurse in resignation and said, “I just exited the ward area, and didn’t touch anything while I was out.”
“No,” Wang Jia said in an extremely firm tone. “Doctor Ling said that every single doctor must wash his hands whenever they enter or exit this place. Even chief physicians are not excused.”
“I…” Lu Wenbin lowered his head and obediently pressed out some alcohol-based hand sanitizer from the bottle beside the door. He then started rubbing his hands…
“You must wash your hands very thoroughly. The hand sanitizer must cover the entirety of your hands, from your fingers to your wrists.” Wang Jia’s voice was cold, and she inspected Lu Wenbin’s hands like how Lu Wenbin inspected his pig’s hooves.
Lu Wenbin had no choice but to obediently coat his hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizer before entering the ward area.
In the corridor of the ward area, four circulating nurses, who were holding a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer each, were staring at the doctors around them with ferocious gazes.
Lu Wenbin walked quickly with his head lowered.
In reality, mandatory disinfection measures were being carried out in every hospital. Some hospitals even enforced it very strictly.
A specialized department was even created just for this—the Department of Infection Control.
Its full name is the Department of Hospital-Acquired Infection Prevention and Control, and was created just to combat nosocomial infections. Its purpose was to make sure that patients did not acquire infection because of medical activities.
One could only imagine the number of patients who acquire nosocomial infections because of medical activities, to the point that such a department needed to exist.
However, in reality, the creation of the Department of Infection Control was only an administrative action. The efficiency of the Department of Infection Control of most hospitals were rather pitiful and did not bring about much positive changes.
And this inefficiency was caused by the medical staff’s lack of cooperation. It was also because everyone in the hospital failed to show persistence in their effort to control nosocomial infection due to a lack of capable leaders.
The role played by the Department of Infection Control was a very meticulous one, and it was very hard to trace the source of mishaps that happened to pin the blame on someone. You could say that the tasks carried out by the Department of Infection Control were arduous and not rewarding.
Most of the time, even if the Department of Infection Control or the leaders of the hospitals had the intention to carry out strict disinfection measures, it was very hard for them to get the medical staff to cooperate.
However, the moment Ling Ran became the leader of the Ling Treatment Group, all the young nurses gave their full cooperation to him when he demanded that they carry out strict disinfection measures.
And in the hospital, if you were to describe the chief surgeons as the kings of the operating theaters, the ward areas other than the operating theaters were ruled by the nurses.
In the wards, doctors and patients were only passersby .
The nurses were the only ones who were always there.
“Have you washed your hands?” A nurse could not help but furrowed her eyebrows when she walked past Lu Wenbin.
“Yes.” Lu Wenbin immediately extended his hands to show the nurse and flashed a piteous expression. “I washed it so vigorously that even my skin is going to come off.”
“Doctor Ling mentioned that using a small amount of alcohol-based hand sanitizer wouldn’t cause the skin too much harm.” The nurse earnestly corrected Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin flashed a bitter smile. “Even if it causes very little damage, it will damage the skin if we have to wash it day in and out.”
“Is your skin injured?” The nurse looked at Lu Wenbin with furrowed eyebrows.
“Not yet…”
“That means no.” The nurse firmly cut Lu Wenbin off and said, “You can stand out and call Doctor Ling’s decision into question when you’re injured for real, because Doctor Ling is definitely right.”
Lu Wenbin shook his head. “How do you know that Doctor Ling is definitely right?”
“Why would someone as handsome as Doctor Ling get anything wrong?” The young nurse straightened her body, and her tone was earnest and firm.
Lu Wenbin froze for a moment. He did not actually know how to refute her words.
“I’ll go and take a look at a patient.” Lu Wenbin fled the scene before the young nurse started lecturing him and dashed into the nearest ward.
There was a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer on the wall of the ward.
There was a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer beside every hospital bed.
There were bottles of alcohol-based hand sanitizer on the window sills and behind the walls.
“You must disinfect your hands before coming into contact with the patients, and this has to be done before coming into contact with each patient.” Another nurse craned her head inside one of the rooms while she stood in the corridor. She then continued, “Don’t forget the lesson puerperal fever thought us.”
Puerperal fever was an extremely prevalent disease in the nineteenth century, and its frequency of occurrence was a few times higher among women who gave birth in hospitals compared to the general population. And it was all because doctors were too lazy to carry out disinfection.
This kind of skeleton from the past was what doctors, including Lu Wenbin, tried their best to forget. Lu Wenbin could not help but mutter, “What’s with these responsible nurses and doctors with OCD? So unbearable.”
“Are you refusing to wash your hands?” The young nurse lifted the whistle she was wearing around her neck and was prepared to blow it any time.
Lu Wenbin chuckled a few times and decided not to mention that he had already washed his hands. He took a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer and started washing his hands again.
It was half a minute before he went to the patient.
The patient and his family members were pretty happy when they saw how responsible Lu Wenbin was though, and there were smiles on their faces.
Lu Wenbin’s emotions slowly settled down.
For doctors, the washing of hands was only an extremely minor matter. Now that Ling Ran insisted upon it, Lu Wenbin and the others would not deliberately go against Ling Ran.
In only a few days, the Ling Treatment Group of Yun Hua Hospital’s Emergency Department had gotten used to washing their hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizer day in and day out.