Self-reported survey on infection prevention and control structures in healthcare facilities part of a national level healthcare associated infection surveillance network in India, 2019

Background: Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are prevalent and difficult to treat worldwide. Most HAIs can be prevented by effective implementation of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures. A survey was conducted to assess the existing IPC practices across a network of Indian Hospitals using the World Health Organization designed self-assessment IPC Assessment Framework (IPCAF) tool.Methods: This was a cross sectional observation study. Thirty-two tertiary care public and private facilities, part of the existing Indian HAI surveillance network was included. Data collected was analyzed by a central team at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, a tertiary care hospital of India. The WHO question-naire tool was used to understand the capacity and efforts to implement IPC practices across the network.Results: The overall median score of IPCAF across the network was 620. Based on the final IPCAF score of the facilities; 13% hospitals had basic IPC practices, 28% hospitals had intermediate and 59% hospitals had advanced IPC practices. The component multimodal strategies had the broadest range of score while the component IPC guidelines had the narrowest one.Conclusions: Quality improvement training for IPC nurses and healthcare professionals are needed to be pro-vided to health facilities.(c) 2021 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The IPC practices across the network of Indian Hospitals were assessed using the IPCAF tool, with 13% having basic practices, 28% intermediate practices, and 59% advanced practices. There is room for improvement in quality improvement training for IPC nurses and healthcare professionals.