	The Pan American Health Organization Promoting Health in the Americas

Health Surveillance and Disease Management / Communicable Diseases / Antimicrobial Resistance

Nosocomial Infection Program Rapid Evaluation Guide (Washington, DC, July 2005)

Full Text (20 pp, PDF, 296 Kb) - Instructions for Application of the Nosocomial Infection Rapid Evaluation Guide - General Considerations (text to right) - Description of the Guide (text to right) - General Instructions - Instructions and Recommendations for Interviews - Instructions and Recommendations for Document Review - Instructions and Recommendations for Direct Observation - Specific Instructions - Area: Intervention Strategies - Area: Ineffective Practices - Written Report - Instructions and Recommendations for Preparation of the Report - Records - Glossary - Description of Hospital - Individuals to Interview - Proposed Program - Guide to Areas - Area: Organization - Area: Epidemiological Surveillance of Infections - Area: Microbiology - Area: Intervention Strategies - Prevention and Control Strategies Record Form - Area: Sterilization and High-Level Disinfection - Area: Personnel Health - Area: Hospital Environment and Sanitation - Area: Ineffective Practices PAHO Antimicrobial Resistance Page - WHO Drug Resistance Page - WHO Pharamaceutical Products Page		Purpose Provide orientation for hospital directors on review and improvement of the nosocomial infection programs that all such facilities should have. According to the experts, a well-developed program in the areas currently considered necessary will contain the components and characteristics described in this guide. Provide a general overview rather than specifics on the status of hospital nosocomial infection prevention and control activities. Therefore, this guide does not consider the risk of individual patients or specific cases. By nature, it is intended only as an instrument to provide support for an external assessment of the status of the program. It should not be considered an accreditation system. Furthermore, it does not consider other aspects related to care outside of surveillance, prevention, and control of nosocomial infections. Description of the Guide The guide provides information on a number of aspects that, according to a group of Latin American experts, should be included in nosocomial infection prevention and control programs. These aspects have been organized in eight areas that include similar topics. In each area, some components considered to be essential in a good infection program have been selected. In each component, the characteristics considered to best describe an acceptable component have been established. Then, indicators have been established so that the presence of the characteristics could be considered objectively. A single characteristic may have several indicators and a single component may have several characteristics. One or more verifiers ("suggested verifiers") have been proposed for each indicator. These simply offer orientation or sources of information for the evaluators that can be used to determine whether a certain indicator is present. The evaluators can use other methods to establish the presence of indicators. According to this guide, evaluation of the nosocomial infection program is based solely on the presence of indicators. The characteristics and components have been established following analysis of the indicators used for evaluation. The only exception to the above is the "ineffective practices" area, in which the presence of any of the indicators is considered in a comment to the report.