The practice of infection control and applied epidemiology: A historical perspective

Abstract

The United States health care system and patient populations have changed substantially over the past several decades. The practice of infection control also has evolved since the landmark Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control project, and infection control professionals (ICPs) must continue to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to practice infection prevention and control. Practice analyses of infection control conducted between 1982 and 2001 were analyzed to determine changes in practice. These data reflect a 145% increase in infection control activities over a 20-year period. However, resources for infection control and prevention have not kept pace with this increased activity. In addition, the current trend toward mandatory reporting of health care-associated infections (HAIs) among several states will add more tasks for ICPs with limited resources, at the risk of spending less time on prevention and control activities. In keeping with its philosophy of quality health care and responsible public reporting, the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc, continues to explore the issue of mandatory reporting of HAIs.

Effectiveness of a Nosocomial Infection Control Training in Improving Knowledge in Patient-Hired Attendants and Outsourced Workers in Taiwan

“…Cleaning hands before and after physical contact with patients, for example, is one important measure (Anonymous, 2005;Lu, Chin, Tseng, Hsieh, & Shen, 2006;Rosenthal, Guzman, & Safdar, 2005). Many study results support the efficacy of on-the-job training (covering such topics as hand-washing and barrier protection) for hospital employees on nosocomial infection control strategies (Aragon, Sole, & Brown, 2005;Goldrick, 2005;Rosenthal et al, 2005), compliance with nosocomial infection control practices, and training to manage outbreaks.…”

“…Nosocomial infections are a primary factor causing inpatients to extend their length of stay in the hospital (Erbay et al, 2003;Sheng et al, 2005), wasting medical resources, exposing inpatients to risks of other infections and raising the risk of death (Goldrick, 2005). In Taiwan, the Centers for Disease Control (2007) reported an average nosocomial infection rate of 4.…”

Training infection control and hospital hygiene professionals in Europe, 2010: agreed core competencies among 33 European countries

“…While this strengthens the role of IC/HH professionals [2], the process has not always been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the resources for IC/HH prevention and control [3]. Many reports have documented a shortage of qualified IC/HH doctors and IC/HH nurses [4][5][6][7], and there are large differences among European countries in the qualifications required to work as an IC/HH professional [8].…”

Knowledge-sharing networks of hospital-based infection preventionists in Kentucky.

“…Infection prevention in a healthcare setting is an organization-wide program that often involves some number of employees who are tasked with leading the efforts toward preventing or eliminating HAls within that healthcare setting (Goldrick, 2005). Through focused efforts on the prevention of HAls, the problems associated with them, such as poor patient outcomes and high hospital costs, can be reduced or eliminated.…”

“…Infection preventionist-The infection preventionist is a healthcare worker who is employed for the task of prevention and control of health care-associated infections (Goldrick, 2005).…”