Major article
Hospital infection control units: Staffing, costs, and priorities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2015.02.016Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examined infection control staffing and resources in Australian hospitals.

  • The mean number of infection control professionals was 0.66 per 100 overnight beds.

  • Approximately $76 million is allocated annually to infection control nurse staffing.

  • Improved information technology systems were reported as a resource priority.

Background

This article describes infection prevention and control professionals' (ICPs') staffing levels, patient outcomes, and costs associated with the provision of infection prevention and control services in Australian hospitals. A secondary objective was to determine the priorities for infection control units.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used. Infection control units in Australian public and private hospitals completed a Web-based anonymous survey. Data collected included details about the respondent; hospital demographics; details and services of the infection control unit; and a description of infection prevention and control-related outputs, patient outcomes, and infection control priorities.

Results

Forty-nine surveys were undertaken, accounting for 152 Australian hospitals. The mean number of ICPs was 0.66 per 100 overnight beds (95% confidence interval, 0.55-0.77). Privately funded hospitals have significantly fewer ICPs per 100 overnight beds compared with publicly funded hospitals (P < .01). Staffing costs for nursing staff in infection control units in this study totaled $16,364,392 (mean, $380,566). Infection control units managing smaller hospitals (<270 beds) identified the need for increased access to infectious diseases or microbiology support.

Conclusion

This study provides valuable information to support future decisions by funders, hospital administrators, and ICPs on service delivery models for infection prevention and control. Further, it is the first to provide estimates of the resourcing and cost of staffing infection control in hospitals at a national level.

Section snippets

Study design

A cross-sectional study design was used. Participants completed an anonymous online via a Web-based survey.

Participants and setting

Australian hospitals are managed by either a public (government) governance system or by private entities. There are 1,338 individual hospitals in Australia, of which 56% are public hospitals. There are 87,315 overnight hospital beds (3.9 per 1,000 population), 67% of these are public hospital beds.13 Infection control units may provide services to an individual or group of hospitals. The

Results

Surveys from 49 individual infection control units were completed, accounting for 152 Australian hospitals with 19,436 overnight hospitals beds (Table 1). No duplicate responses from an infection control unit were received. Infection control units were responsible for between 1 and 46 individual hospitals (median, 1). The 19,426 overnight beds constitute data representing 22.2% of all Australian hospital beds (both public and privately funded).13 The median number of overnight beds that each

Discussion

This study provides a current description of infection control resources in Australian hospitals. The sample surveyed is comparable with the wider Australian hospital system because the proportion of respondents from public (77%) and private hospitals (23%) in our survey is close to the overall national picture (67% public). Further, for the first time, to our knowledge, we have provided an estimate of the cost of providing infection control services at a national level, described the incidence

Conclusion

This study provides a current description of infection control resources in Australian hospitals. We have provided an estimate of the costs of staffing an infection control service at a national level. This will enable international comparisons to be made, when such data become available. These data will also enable a debate about whether the current level of investment in infection control human resources is adequate. Apart from human resources, we identified improved information technology as

Acknowledgments

We thank all infection control professionals who participated in this study.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Funding/Support: Supported by the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control.

    Conflicts of interest: None to report.

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