Major articleHospital infection control units: Staffing, costs, and priorities
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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Funding/Support: Supported by the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.