Study identifies gaps in infection prevention practices at critical access hospitals

Editor's Note

Small, rural critical access hospitals have significant gaps in their infection prevention practices, finds this new study presented June 13 at the Annual Conference of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in Minneapolis.

In 36 Nebraska hospitals analyzed, researchers found important gaps in all domains, but the greatest gaps were in injection safety, central line-associated bloodstream infection prevention, and catheter associated urinary tract infection prevention.

Lack of competency-based training programs and failure to perform audits and feedback were a common theme. Having trained infection preventionists and allowing them to dedicate more time to infection prevention as well as the larger size of the facility were associated with the presence of CDC-recommended infection prevention and control practices.

Additional resources are needed to help small, rural hospitals close the gaps in infection prevention and improve patient safety, the authors say.