MANUSCRIPT: Impact of organizations on healthcare-associated infections.
Resolving the challenges presented by healthcare-associated infections requires a ‘whole healthcare economy’ perspective encompassing the interactions between biological, therapeutic, and structural factors. The importance and influence of organizational characteristics is receiving increasing attention. This article reviews some keys features that can facilitate the success of patient safety initiatives related to healthcare-associated infections, and highlights areas for further consideration and research. The impact of guidelines and indicators is discussed, together with some challenges resulting from the need to maintain and sustain clinicians’ commitment to desired behaviour. Novel technology solutions such as electronic healthcare games and engagement with social media platforms may serve to support and reinforce traditional patient safety improvement initiatives. Recently published essential structural components and indicators of infection prevention and control programmes stress the need for comprehensive approaches that integrate multimodal and multidisciplinary solutions and strive to reinforce an organizational culture of patient safety.
via Impact of organizations on healthcare-associated infections. – PubMed – NCBI.
Written by Brian S McGowan, PhD
Dr. McGowan has served in leadership positions in numerous medical educational organizations and commercial supporters and is a Fellow of the Alliance (FACEhp). He founded the Outcomes Standardization Project, launched and hosted the Alliance Podcast, and most recently launched and hosts the JCEHP Emerging Best Practices in CPD podcast. In 2012 he Co-Founded ArcheMedX, Inc, a healthcare informatics and e-learning company to apply his research in practice.
