How much time should long-term care and geriatric rehabilitation facilities (nursing homes) spend on infection control?
BACKGROUND
For hospitals, standards for the required number of infection control personnel are outdated and disputed. Such standards are not even available for long-term care and geriatric rehabilitation facilities (ie, nursing homes). This study addressed the question of how much time nursing homes should spend on infection control.


METHODS
Through group discussions and individual sessions, experienced infection control practitioners, medical microbiologists, and nursing home doctors evaluated the time needed to perform infection control activities in a model nursing home.


RESULTS
The number of hours needed was estimated as 513 per 100 beds, or 154 per 10,000 care-days per year.


CONCLUSIONS
Given that significant differences can be expected among the various facilities identified as nursing homes, long-term care facilities, or geriatric rehabilitation centers, as well as among countries, the standard that we propose for The Netherlands will not be generally applicable. However, the method we have used to determine this standard can be easily applied in other countries and settings.
van den Broek
Peterhans J
PJ
Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. p.j.van_den_broek@lumc.nl
Cools
Herman J M
HJ
Wulf
Mireille
M
Das
Philo H A C
PH
D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000379:methods*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors