Hospitals with lower staffing levels in infection prevention and control teams have higher rates of healthcare-associated infections, according to an Oct. 10 study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
Researchers with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology conducted the study, which includes data from more than 390 acute-care hospitals.
Four notes:
- Lower staffing rates were associated with higher rates for numerous HAIs. For instance, 25% of hospitals whose infection prevention-and-control programs were staffed at lower than expected levels had elevated rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections, compared to just 7% of hospitals determined to have expected or above-expected staffing levels.
- Nearly 80% of hospitals that participated in the study were found to have insufficient levels of IP staffing.
- The study is based on a pilot project that analyzed an online calculator tool that provided customized IP prevention staffing recommendations, tailored to specific facility factors, such as the complexity of services provided.
- Hospitals traditionally based IP staffing levels on benchmarks involving ratios of infection preventionists per inpatient bed. APIC has called the "one size fits all" method outdated and inadequate, and urges hospital leaders to adopt the tool for more accurate staffing assessments.