National study of healthcare associated infection

"Healthcare associated infection: what else can the NHS do?" is presented as two related reports - summary and full. It presents findings from our national study of NHS acute trusts into what might drive improvements in performance on healthcare associated infections, and what may be limiting the organisations that are struggling to improve. The intention of both reports is to prompt trust boards into reviewing their own arrangements in the context of practices that are linked to lower rates of infection, taking account of the duties in the Hygiene Code.

The summary report provides the key themes. The main message is that there is no universal ‘quick fix’ for delivering good results on the prevention and control of infection: it requires relentless attention to the detail of accepted good practice for each patient throughout the period of their care.

The full report provides detail of the analysis of data from questionnaires completed by 155 out of 173 acute trusts in mid 2006. It will be of particular interest to trust boards, directors of infection, prevention and control (DIPCs), and members of infection control teams who lead improvement programmes. The report does not provide any simple answers but illustrates what combinations of practices appear to link most successfully to lower rates of infection.

The report presents five main themes:

developing an organisational culture
corporate and clinical governance systems
systems for reviewing performance
integrated risk management
communication with patients and the public

We intend to supplement the report later in 2007 with papers in the scientific literature that will provide more detail of the statistical analyses underlying some of the study’s findings.

Healthcare associated infection: what else can the NHS do? - full report (pdf 1088kb) (opens new window)

Healthcare associated infection: what else can the NHS do? summary report (pdf 702kb) (opens new window)