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. 2024 Nov 14;13(1):136.
doi: 10.1186/s13756-024-01492-4.

Effects of establishing infection control program with core components of World Health Organization on reducing the risk of residents' infections and improving staff infection control competency in a nursing home

Min Hye Lee  1 , Yu Mi Yi  2 , Eun-Young Noh  3 , Yeon-Hwan Park  4
Affiliations

Effects of establishing infection control program with core components of World Health Organization on reducing the risk of residents' infections and improving staff infection control competency in a nursing home

Min Hye Lee et al. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. .

Abstract

Background: Nursing homes (NHs) are high-risk facilities with limited infection control resources and residents susceptible to infectious diseases. The evidence regarding World Health Organization (WHO) core components in NHs is lacking. This study evaluates the effectiveness of establishing an infection prevention and control (IPC) program with WHO's core components in an NH.

Methods: The IPC program, encompassing evidence-based guidelines, education and training, surveillance, multimodal strategies, monitoring and feedback, workload and staffing considerations, and the built environment, was implemented in a 130-bed NH for one year. The effects were assessed based on the number of infections among residents, the level of knowledge, and the performance of infection control among staff. The risk of infection was analyzed across three phases: pre-implementation phase, implementation phase (6 and 12 months after intervention initiation), and sustainability phase (3, 6, and 12 months after intervention was finished). Staff data were analyzed before and after the intervention.

Results: Analysis of 18,124 resident-days revealed that during the sustainability phase, the risk of respiratory tract infection was significantly lower than before intervention implementation (odds ratio [OR] 0.51, 95% CI 0.30-0.86, p = 0.012). Moreover, a significant improvement was observed in staff knowledge (p = 0.002) and performance (p < 0.001) after the intervention compared to before.

Conclusions: WHO's core components may have a potential effect on reducing healthcare-associated infections among residents and enhancing the infection control competency of staff in the NH with limited IPC resources.

Keywords: Infection control; Longitudinal studies; Nursing homes; Resource-limited settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study obtained approval from institutional review board (IRB) of Seoul National University of South Korea (No. 1711/003–015, 1911/001–008). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The timeline of this study. IPC = infection prevention and control
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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