Healthcare-associated infection is preventable
There are around 200,000 healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in Australian acute healthcare
facilities each year2
. This makes HAIs the most common complication affecting patients in hospital.
As well as causing unnecessary pain and suffering for patients and their families, these adverse events
prolong hospital stays and are costly to the health system. The problem does not just affect patients
and workers in hospitals—HAIs can occur in any healthcare setting, including office-based practices
(e.g. general practice clinics, dental clinics) and long-term care facilities (see Glossary). Any person
working in or entering a healthcare facility is at risk. However, healthcare-associated infection is a
potentially preventable adverse event rather than an unpredictable complication. It is possible to
significantly reduce the rate of HAIs through effective infection prevention and control.
Infection prevention and control is everybody’s business
Understanding the modes of transmission of infectious organisms and knowing how and when
to apply the basic principles of infection prevention and control is critical to the success of
an infection control program. This responsibility applies to everybody working and visiting a
healthcare facility, including administrators, staff, patients and carers.
Successful approaches for preventing and reducing harms arising from HAIs involve applying
a risk-management framework to manage ‘human’ and ‘system’ factors associated with the
transmission of infectious agents. This approach ensures that infectious agents, whether common
(e.g. gastrointestinal viruses) or evolving (e.g. influenza or multi-resistant organisms [MROs]),
can be managed effectively.