Facts About Infection Control in Illinois Hospitals
- Illinois hospitals are committed to the provision
of safe, quality care and the well-being of all patients and health care
personnel.
- All
hospitals run the risk of nosocomial infection – that is, infections acquired
in the hospital – as well as infections that are brought into the
hospital. These infections may be endemic (common cause) or epidemic (special
cause), and they may affect patients, health care workers and others who come
into contact with patients.
- Today’s
hospital patient is more susceptible to infection than in the past.
- Medical science is keeping
people alive longer. People who would have died years
ago are still living and undergoing procedures they
would not have had in the past.
- Life is being extended on
both ends of the spectrum — extremely premature babies
are living today who wouldn’t have survived in the
past.
- Other patients are
receiving transplants or powerful medications such as
those used to treat leukemia and other cancers or HIV,
which increases their susceptibility to infection.
- The co-morbidity is much
higher. Patients are admitted with a variety of chronic
ailments, such as diabetes, obesity, years of tobacco
use, alcohol use, and lack of exercise.
- All of the above means
patients in hospitals today are much frailer, much more
at risk of infection, and more susceptible to bacteria
that would not have made them sick in years past.
- Every
hospital has an infection control program, led by a
designated qualified staff member, many of whom have
obtained a standard Certification in Infection Control
practice. That person is the key advocate for patients and
employees and reports to the hospital administrator and the
chair of the infection control committee – usually a
physician or epidemiologist.
- Hospitals
work hard at infection control. Preventing infections is a
never-ending process within the institution with new
challenges and situations emerging every day. Public health
researchers and providers are increasingly concerned about
the growing number of diseases and infections that are
resistant to current levels of treatment.
- Infection
control permeates every aspect of daily hospital
operations, from evaluating products, to construction
design and planning and facility waste management, to
monitoring sterilization processes and patient care
activities. Hospital infection control practitioners also
work closely with state and local government Occupational
Health Departments on appropriate work restrictions for
employees with communicable diseases.
- Infection
control in Illinois hospitals involves multidisciplinary
teams that determine quality improvement strategies.
Infection control professionals have a very active network,
nationally and locally, allowing them to keep up with
developments and share information about what works and
what doesn’t so they can institute and maintain programs
to help prevent infection. Some infection control
strategies currently in use in Illinois hospitals include:
1. Automatic stop orders for antibiotics.
2. Use of closed suctioning systems to minimize opportunity
for introducing new pathogens when patients require
suctioning.
3. Use of antiseptic disc at insertion site of central
intravenous lines.
4. Systemically evaluation of hand-care products and
environmental cleaning products for sufficient
anti-microbial kill.
5. Use of antimicrobial-impregnated invasive devices.
- The Illinois
Hospital Licensing Act requires hospitals to comply with
the Control of Communicable Diseases Code, which was
revised just last year to add 20 new disease-specific
categories in order to address emerging infectious diseases
and antibiotic-resistant organisms as well as bioterrorist
agents. In addition to this state requirement, most
hospitals use the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
guidelines for isolation precautions in hospitals.
- In addition,
nine out of ten Illinois hospitals are accredited every
three years by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations, whose standards mandate focused
hospital activity and resources for surveillance,
prevention, and control of infection.
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