Impact of hospital accreditation on infection control programs in teaching hospitals in Japan.
BACKGROUND
In Japan, hospital infection control (IC) programs are frequently under-resourced, whereas their improvement is considered a pressing issue. Hospital accreditation may have a positive impact on IC program performance. The Japan Council for Quality Health Care (JCQHC) is a hospital accreditation organization that now prescribes broad elements of IC as part of its accreditation standards.


METHODS
We sent questionnaire surveys to all teaching hospitals in Japan to characterize the current situation of hospital IC activities and identify the impact of accreditation on IC infrastructure and performance. The self-administered questionnaire that we used was developed based on the JCQHC accreditation standards. Surveys were sent to all institutions in 2004 and again in 2005.


RESULTS
Of the 638 hospitals surveyed, 335 (52%) answered in both years. Most IC practitioners in Japanese teaching hospitals were working part time and spent limited hours performing IC duties. Surveillance was poorly implemented in Japan, and IC activities without evidence of effectiveness were widely performed. Surveillance was implemented more frequently in hospitals with adequate IC staffing. Improvement in IC infrastructure and performance between the surveys was larger in the newly accredited hospitals than the others.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospital accreditation had a significant impact on hospitals' IC infrastructure and performance.
Sekimoto
Miho
M
Department of Healthcare Economics and Quality Management, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Imanaka
Yuichi
Y
Kobayashi
Hiroyoshi
H
Okubo
Takashi
T
Kizu
Junko
J
Kobuse
Hiroe
H
Mihara
Hanako
H
Tsuji
Noriaki
N
Yamaguchi
Ayumi
A
D000068:Accreditation; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007564:Japan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires