With new metrics indicating rising healthcare-associated infections amid the pandemic, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology is calling on healthcare organizations to assess infection prevention capacity and strengthen prevention programs.
"The current pandemic illustrates that our healthcare facilities are not where they need to be in terms of infection prevention and patient safety," APIC President Linda Dickey, RN, said in a Feb. 15 news release. "Facility-wide infection prevention programs are critical and require adequately staffed, trained, and resourced infection prevention and control departments. We must bolster our infection prevention and control staff capacity in our system of healthcare to simultaneously manage HAIs and future pandemics."
"This is not the time to ask infection prevention teams to do more with less," she continued.
APIC is calling on federal and state governments to provide funding for healthcare facilities to ensure adequate surge capacity so infection prevention and control measures can endure when stressed.
To help healthcare facilities assess infection prevention capacity, APIC is launching a campaign called HAI Fast Forward: Accelerating HAI Prevention, which will include webinars and other resources to help reduce HAIs.
"We can't let the lessons learned from COVID-19 go to waste," Ms. Dickey said. "Building stronger infection prevention programs throughout healthcare will not only improve our ability to protect the public during future pandemics but will simultaneously improve patient safety."