Dive Brief:
- Hospitals have neither the proper staffing nor sufficient policies in place to prevent common hospital acquired infections, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
- The survey examined 975 responses to questions about infection control and programs to combat it, as well as looking at clinician compliance with programs to prevent HAIs in 1,653 intensive care units.
- Researchers found that few hospitals had prevention policies for catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), though they are the most common HAI. In cases where hospitals did have prevention policies, adherence was low, ranging from 6%-27%, the study found.
Dive Insight:
Getting on top of HAIs isn't easy and, apparently, it isn't easy to get clinical staff to adhere to infection prevention guidelines either. To improve the situation, the study's authors concluded that hospitals need to increase the number of infection preventionists per 1000 beds. Considering how expensive HAIs can turn out to be -- they cost $9.8B per year -- adding infection preventionists is a relatively inexpensive way to fight them.