[Evaluation of infection control activities in health care facilities in Akita Prefecture].
OBJECTIVE
Infection control is essential for health care facilities. Aiming at improving the activity for infection control, increasing number of health care facilities has settled infection control team (ICT) in this decade. However, the quality of infection control activity has not been evaluated.


METHODS
The quality of infection control was investigated in 49 hospitals and 55 welfare institutions for the aged in Akita prefecture using a questionnaire.


RESULTS
All the hospitals with more than 400 beds or more had ICT; however, less than 50% of the hospitals with 399 beds or less had ICT. The coverage of full-time specialist for infection control remained at a low level. Collection and analysis of information such as the prevalence of multi-drug resistant microorganisms and the consumption of antibiotics remained at a low level. More than 88% of the facilities hoped for a regional infection control network system to improve infection control activities. Reciprocal help in case of outbreak, education, lectures, sharing rules on infection control, making guidelines and teaching materials for infection control, analysis of infection control-related epidemiological data and getting suggestions and recommendations from authorized infection control specialists were included in the strongly required functions of the network.
Kayaba
Hiroyuki
H
Infection Control Team, Akita University Hospital, Akita 010-8543, Japan. kayaba@hos.akita-u.ac.jp
Ito
Wataru
W
Ueki
Shigeharu
S
Takeda
Masahide
M
Kagaya
Hideaki
H
Hinai
Yudai
Y
Watanabe
Eriko
E
Kobayashi
Noriko
N
Tomita
Noriko
N
Chihara
Junichi
J
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D019058:Community Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents