Habboush Y; Benham MD; Louie T; Noor A; Sprague RM
StatPearls-/-ä 2024[Jan]; ä (ä): ä PMID33351423show ga
Infection control refers to the policy and procedures implemented to control and minimize the dissemination of infections in hospitals and other healthcare settings, with the main purpose of reducing infection rates. Infection control as a formal entity was established in the early 1950s in the United States. By the late 1950s and 1960s, a small number of hospitals began to recognize healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and implemented some of these infection control concepts. The primary purpose of infection control programs was to focus on the surveillance for HAIs and in-cooperate the basic understandings of epidemiology to elucidate risk factors for HAIs. However, most of the infection control programs were organized and managed by large academic centers rather than public health agencies, which lead to sporadic efficiency and suboptimal outcomes. It was not until the late 19th and early 20th century when the new era in infection control was started through three pivotal events. These events included the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on errors in health care, the 2002 Chicago Tribune representation on HAIs, and the 2004/2006 publications of the significant reductions in bloodstream infection rate through the standardization of central venous catheter insertion process. This new era in healthcare epidemiology is characterized by consumer demands for more transparency and accountability, increasing scrutiny and regulation, and expectations for rapid reductions in HAIs rates. The role of infection control is to prevent and reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections. This can be achieved by implementing infection control programs in the forms of surveillance, isolation, outbreak management, environmental hygiene, employee health, education, and infection prevention policies and management.
StatPearls-/-ä 2024 ; ä (ä): ä
