Can someone explain, even if there are resistant pathogenic bacterial strains floating around, where the entrypoint for infection is? Operating rooms are cleanrooms, and after that, with good dressings on the wounds, bacteria should be prevented from entering.
"Flesh eating bacteria" due to scratching is one thing; bacteria that gain a foothold through the GI tract is another; I understand how those infections get started.
However, internal infections caused somehow by surgical wounds? Are surgical suite clean rooms not a low enough class and therefore not sterile enough? Is wound aftercare not good enough? Are surgical tools getting contaminated after sterilization but before the surgery?
Maybe hospitals should be turned into high-class[1] (lower-effectiveness) cleanrooms. I realize laminar flow in such a chaotic environment is impossible, and of limited effectiveness if people are not gowned and so shed contamination all the time, but there could at least be an attempt to push some of the contamination to vents on the floor. How much would that increase costs? It wouldn't have to be entire hospitals, only the recovery wards.
Other than that, a major initiative to clean up hospitals could be undertaken. Surfaces and floors and everything else commonly touched should be sterilized more often, to start with. Any area that sees a lot of patient turn-over is going to be heavily contaminated. Anyone who goes from room to room (doctors, nurses) should wear gloves before entering a room to avoid cross-contamination. Donning new gloves once in a room is not good enough; doorknobs, clipboards, light switches, etc. are all still subject to cross-contamination.
Recent studies on hotel rooms made me never want to check into one again:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-d...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hot...
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom#Cleanroom_classificat...