Objective To survey the current situation of the sharp injury in medical workers, and to provide scientific evidence for the prevention and protection of sharp injury. Methods Through applying the questionnaire of sharp injuries designed by Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai Fudan University, 10% of the workers in all departments of West China Hospital of Sichuan University were selected as respondents according to their job categories. The main contents of the survey included the general information of respondents, reporting after sharp injuries, training participation, and the exposure sources, operations, premises and equipments related to sharp injuries over the past one year.Results Of 840 questionnaires distributed, 100% were valid. The ratio of male was 23% while the female was 72%. There were 50.20% of all respondents who once got injured, and 75% of the respondents having the history of sharp injury worked less than 10 years. The nurses, house keepers and physicians were in the top three positions of suffering from sharp injury; and the operating room was ranked as the highest risk department for sharp injuries. The known haematogenous exposure sources were 69 cases of hepatitis B, 19 syphilis, 6 hepatitis C, and 3 HIV. There were 62% of the respondents who had ever attended related training, and only 11.61% of the injured respondents reported their sharp injuries. Conclusion The incidence rate of the sharp injury is high, but the report rate is low. The operating room is the high risk department, and nurses, house keepers, and physicians are the high risk population for sharp injuries. The prevention and protection and training for sharp injury in target departments and population should be strengthened.
Running an infection control regular meeting is an effective way to develop and improve the communication between the infection control team and clinical units. This paper introduces the infection control regular monthly meeting which is held in the last week of each month in a newly-opened branch hospital of a university teaching hospital in China. Through collecting the issues for discussion beforehand, feeding back the surveillance data of last month including nosocomial infection, hand hygiene, multidrug-resistant organisms, occupational exposure, and medical waste, discussing the current infection control issues from each ward and trying to solve them together, and delivering and sharing new knowledge, skills, and information in terms of infection control, the monthly meeting achieves remarkable successes in the aspects of promoting the hospital infection control-related cultural construction, enhancing the supervision and implementation of infection control measures, and running new projects on hospital infection management, etc. Infection control regular monthly meeting builds up a study and work platform, promotes the multidisciplinary and multi-department communication and collaboration, and improves the quality of infection control eventually.
Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital was built within 12 days during the key period of fighting against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan. It was a field infectious disease hospital with 1500 beds. Due to the emergency of the epidemic situation, the operation mode of “parallel of construction, acceptance, training and treatment” was employed. During the peak period, nearly 3000 medical workers and 13000 builders worked on the same site. In 67 days, 2 011 patients with COVID-19 were treated. Through the bundle infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital achieved zero infection, zero accident, and low level pollution of SARS-CoV-2 (0.3%) by environment monitoring. The bundle IPC measures of Leishenshan Hospital not only provided prevention and control experience for other field infectious disease hospitals at domestic and abroad during the period of COVID-19, but also put forward ideas and work flow for other medical institutions to deal with emerging infectious diseases.
When a clustered coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic occurs, how to prevent and control hospital infection is a challenge faced by each medical institution. Under the normalization situation, building an effective prevention and control system is the premise and foundation for medical institutions to effectively prevent and control infection when dealing with clustered epidemics. According to the principles of control theory, medical institutions should quickly switch to an emergency state, and effectively deal with the external and internal infection risks brought by clustered epidemics by strengthening source control measures, engineering control measures, management control measures and personal protection measures. This article summarizes the experience of handling clustered outbreaks in medical institutions in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019, and aims to provide a reference for medical institutions to take effective prevention and control measures when dealing with clustered outbreaks.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is one of the important pathogens of healthcare-associated infections. In order to prevent and control the transmission of the drug-resistant organism in healthcare facilities, the Healthcare Infection Society and the Infection Prevention Society jointly conducted the guidelines for the prevention and control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in 2021. This article introduces the guide from the background, preparation process, main prevention and control measures and further studies, and compares the guidelines with the current prevention and control measures in China, so as to provide a methodological reference for preparation of the guide for domestic infection prevention and control practitioners, and provide evidence-based prevention and control strategies for clinical practice.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a kind of pneumonia that occurs when artificial airway (tracheal intubation or tracheotomy) is established and mechanical ventilation is accepted. The occurrence of VAP will significantly prolong the ventilation time and hospitalization time of patients, increase the mortality rate and the medical burden. In order to effectively prevent and reduce the occurrence of VAP, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America released the Strategies to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated Events, and Nonventilator Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia in Acute-Care Hospitals: 2022 Update, which is an update of the 2014 version. In order to facilitate the reading and understanding of the medical workers, this article will interpret the infection prevention and control strategies of adult VAP and ventilator-related events.
World Health Organization (WHO) published Core Competencies of Infection Prevention and Control Practitioners in 2020. This WHO document is a very useful guide for implementing the core competencies among infection prevention and control professionals (IPCPs). It is useful for standardisation of the competencies in the field of infection control through relevant formal training, practicum and assessment. This paper explains the framework of the WHO-list of core competencies in relation to the role and responsibilities of IPCPs. The value of introducing core competencies to IPCPs is really vital in the recognition of infection prevention and control as a medical specialty field. The IPCPs core competencies is also an essential guide for practitioners to advance in their professional and career development from novice to expert in the infection prevention and control field.
Currently, there is a lack of guidelines and consensuses on hospital infection prevention and control for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) at home and aboard. Given that in-hospital infection control for CRRT differs from that for intermittent hemodialysis, the Nephrology Brunch of Sichuan International Medical Exchange & Promotion Association, in collaboration with West China Hospital of Sichuan University, has established an expert consensus group for CRRT hospital infection prevention and control. The group conducted systematic retrieval, data analysis, and expert consultation on the thematic content, and developed five topics: occupational protection for CRRT healthcare personnel, CRRT catheter-related infections, collection of CRRT blood/waste specimens, disinfection of CRRT machines, and utilization and disposal of CRRT consumables and waste. The aim is to standardize clinical practices, prevent nosocomial infections, and enhance awareness among healthcare personnel regarding infection prevention and control in CRRT settings.
Objective To evaluate the current status of human resources in healthcare-associated infection prevention and control (infection control) in Jiangxi Province, and explore the impact of emergency public health events on the human resources of infection control professionals in various levels and types of medical institutions. Methods From October 1st to 31st, 2023, questionnaire and on-site interviews were conducted to investigate the human resources situation of infection control professionals in various levels and types of medical institutions in Jiangxi Province. Three stages were selected for the investigation: before the outbreak of COVID-19 (before the event, December 2019), during the event (June 2022), and after the transition of COVID-19 (after the event, June 2023), focusing on the characteristics of human resources between before the event and after the event by the comparative analysis. Results Finally, 289 medical institutions were included. There was a statistically significant difference in the number of infection control professionals in medical institutions among 2019, 2022, and 2023 (χ2=189.677, P<0.001). The number of infection control professionals in 2019 was lower than that in 2022 (P<0.001) and 2023 (P<0.001), but there was no statistically significant difference between 2022 and 2023 (P=0.242). The number of infection control professionals per thousand beds in 2019, 2022, and 2023 was 4.40, 6.16, and 5.76, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between 2019 and 2023 in terms of professional titles, gender, educational level, or professional background (P>0.05). Conclusion Emergency public health events have promoted the increase in the number of infection control professionals, but there is no statistical significance in the professional titles, educational level, or professional background of infection control professionals.
In recent years, the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) has been remarkably increasing. Infections caused by CRE have significantly increased the burden on patients both medically and economically, and the CRE often leads to outbreaks of healthcare-associated infections. It has now become a global public health concern. Consequently, international organizations and academic societies/associations, including the World Health Organization, have developed corresponding prevention and control guidelines. This article provides a detailed introduction to the background, principles, key understandings, and implementation recommendations of China’s Standard for Prevention and Control of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (WS/T 826－2023). The aim is to enhance the recognition of healthcare workers and medical administrators to prevent and control CRE and to provide detailed technical guidance for healthcare facilities in responding to the spread of CRE, thus ensuring medical quality and patient safety.