Comprehensive Hospital Infectious Disease Prevention Strategies
Core Infection Prevention Strategies
- The World Health Organization recommends implementing hand hygiene education programs with alcohol-based hand rubs as the preferred method for routine hand antisepsis 1, 2
- Healthcare workers should perform hand hygiene with alcohol-based hand rub before and after all patient contacts, and use soap and water when hands are visibly soiled with body fluids or excretions 2
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests monitoring hand hygiene compliance and providing feedback to healthcare workers to achieve greater adherence 1, 2
- Prohibit the use of artificial nails among healthcare workers to reduce the risk of infection transmission 2
- Implement contact precautions for all colonized patient encounters to reduce transmission risk, and require healthcare workers to wear gloves and gowns before entering rooms of colonized/infected patients 2, 3
- Isolate colonized and infected patients in single rooms to reduce acquisition risk, and monitor for potential adverse effects of isolation 1, 4
- Cohort patients with the same multidrug-resistant organisms in designated areas when single rooms are unavailable, and consider cohorting staff to reduce transmission risk of resistant organisms 3, 5
Surveillance and Monitoring Systems
- Establish and maintain surveillance for airborne environmental diseases during construction, renovation, repair, and demolition activities, and monitor for airborne infections in immunocompromised patients 6
- Implement a program of active screening cultures at hospital admission followed by contact precautions to reduce colonization rates 7
- Use alert codes to promptly identify patients already known to be colonized at hospital/ward admission, and implement pre-emptive contact precautions for patients admitted from ICUs or wards with known cases of multidrug-resistant organisms 8, 5
Administrative and Educational Measures
- Conduct educational programs to ensure healthcare workers understand the epidemiological importance of infectious organisms, prevention strategies, and effective control measures 1, 2
- Ensure regular multidisciplinary meetings to implement interventions, review adherence audit results, and provide feedback to all healthcare workers 2, 3
- Implement an antimicrobial stewardship program to reduce the spread of resistant organisms, and plan interventions to restrict antibiotic usage 2, 8
- Perform an Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) before construction projects to define scope and need for barrier measures, and determine if immunocompromised patients may be at risk for exposure to fungal spores from dust generated during construction 6