Potential of innovations in hygiene management – a managerial perspective

Abstract

Background Assessment of the current situation is crucial before introducing innovative infection prevention measures. According to the literature, hospital managers should take on the role of “power promoters” in adopting infection prevention measures due to their position and decision-making authority. However, there is no empirical evidence for whether or not this assumption is valid. This paper reports German hospital managers’ perceptions of current challenges in infection prevention and control and innovative prevention measures. We analysed the managerial promoters and barriers of adopting innovations in order to derive recommendations for improving the innovation process in hospitals using the novel AHOI-approach to actively involve patients and their relatives in anti-infection measures. Methods All 3877 medical, nursing and administrative managers of German hospitals were invited to participate in an online survey. The first set of questions intended to determine their perception of problems of hygiene management in their institution and in particular in the interaction with patients and their relatives. The second set of questions was asked to identify potential challenges and barriers to combating nosocomial infections and involving patients and their relatives in infection prevention. Results Two hundred six managers from German hospitals participated in the survey. Transmission of pathogens was seen as the main problem in the inpatient area, especially in acute care hospitals and stationary geriatric care. Barriers to the implementation of novel infection prevention concepts were primarily perceived as lack of time and refinancing by health insurance providers. The surveyed hospital managers assessed that the active involvement of patients and their relatives in infection prevention could strengthen the infection prevention of their institution. Conclusions Hospital managers are open to innovative hygiene interventions. In particular, they welcome the active involvement of patients and their relatives in infection prevention. Therefore, financial and institutional barriers, such as insufficient funding of hygiene management, must be overcome.

The role of managers in promoting good hand hygiene in a Finnish tertiary care hospital

“…This figure is, however, much higher than the response rate of 5.3% in a recent German study of 3877 hospital managers. 23 The lower response rate of male managers (39%) than female managers (47%) may also have biased the results. 24 It is possible that in our study the responders had more a positive attitude to HH than nonresponding managers.…”

Hand hygienic disinfection of nurses – knowledge and its practical use

“…At the same time, the practical knowledge of the correct procedure for maximum effectiveness of hygienic hand disinfection is significant [1]. Lack of time, insufficient or unavailable equipment needed for hygienic hand disinfection, dermatological problems with the use of disinfectant and deficient knowledge of correct procedure are the main factors that make it difficult for nurses to perform hygienic hand disinfection correctly [4][5][6][7]. Preventive educational programmes have a positive effect on the quality of hygienic hand disinfection [8,9].…”

Point-of-care testing system for digital single cell detection of MRSA directly from nasal swabs

“…To prevent further spreading of MRSA in hospitals and to reduce costs, the identification of patients colonized by MRSA at hospital admission is of great importance. [10][11][12] The current gold standard for the detection of MRSA is the culture-based approach, which combines broth enrichment culture with plate culture and the identification of methicillin-/ oxacillin resistance by various techniques. 13,14 However, these methods require laborious workflows, have a high time-toresult of two to three days and may require further subcultures and tests for final confirmation.…”