Chapter 1 Infection Prevention and Control Programs

Basic Principles
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American Hospital Association (AHA)

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Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)

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Infection Control in the Hospital

Describes the elements of an infection prevention and control
program that an AHA advisory committee considers essential to
the reduction and elimination of the human and economic
wastage that results from our failure to prevent those
nosocomial infections that are preventable
http://www.aha.org/aha/advisory/2008/081030-quality-adv.pdf

Established to provide education and science-based information to

strengthen and improve the practice of infection prevention.
3 Principle Goals:
Protect the patient
Protect the Healthcare worker, visitors, and others in the
Healthcare Environment
Accomplish the previous two goals in a cost-effective manner
whenever possible

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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The Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) of the National

Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases
The CDCs focus for information, surveillance, investigation,
prevention, and control of HAIs
HAI: Healthcare-Associated Infection
Mission
To protect patients, protect healthcare personnel, and
promote safety, quality, and value in the healthcare
delivery system by providing national leadership for nine
key areas:
o Healthcare Outcomes
o Outbreaks in Healthcare Settings
o Emerging Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections
o Efficacy of new interventions for patient safety
o Clinical microbiology laboratory quality
o Water quality in healthcare setting
o Cost effectiveness of preventing interventions
o Promotion of implementation and evaluation of
prevention interventions
o Development of infection prevention and control
guidelines and policies

Nation Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)

Publishes HAI rate data
Intended for benchmarking and can be used by
institutions in performance-improvement activities

The Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC)

Project
Defined an infection surveillance and control program to contain
three elements:
Epidemiological surveillance for the occurrence of
infections in patients within the hospital
Formulation of policies and procedures to control
infections based on data generated by surveillance and
other sources
Personnel specially trained in hospital epidemiology to
collect the surveillance data and coordinate intervention
activities
Discovered that compared with hospitals that had no program
activities, hospitals that established infection surveillance and
control programs with a full-time equivalent infection prevention
professional per 250 occupied beds, an effectual infection
prevention physical, and a program for reporting wound
infection rates to surgeons reduced their infections rates by
32%.

The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee

(HICPAC)
Provides advice and guidance to the CDC and others regarding
the practice of healthcare infection prevention and control and
strategies for surveillance, prevention, and control of HAIs

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

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