Healthcare-associated infection management has advanced rapidly in recent years. With the development of more standards and guidelines, infection control measures become more standardized and evidence-based. Evidence-based measures are increasingly applied in infection control, which promote more studies on the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. Furthermore, more new ideas of infection control have emerged, with old ones being challenged. The hand hygiene reform, multidrug-resistant organisms, and surgical site infections become the hot topics in recent years. In addition, whole-genome sequencing also provides more bases for understanding pathogen transmission in hospitals. Based on the high-quality studies published in recent years, this opinion review discusses these hot topics in the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections.
Objective To investigate the situation and related factors of influenza vaccination among healthcare workers in Sichuan, and provide a basis for the formulation of the strategy of influenza vaccination. Methods From August 1st to August 6th, 2022, healthcare workers from 21 prefectures and cities in Sichuan province were selected by the hospital infection quality control centers to conduct an online questionnaire survey for status and related factors of influenza vaccination. Single factor analysis of vaccination rate was carried out by χ2 test, and the related factors of influenza vaccination were analyzed by binary multiple logistic regression model. Results A total of 3264 copies of questionnaires were distributed, and 3244 valid copies were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 99.4%. The vaccination rate of influenza vaccine in the surveyed healthcare workers was 56.9% (1846/3244). The gender, age, professional title, position, department, hospital type, hospital nature, hospital level, influenza awareness, and influenza vaccination willingness were the factors resulting in statistically significant differences in influenza vaccination rate among healthcare workers (P<0.05). Binary multiple logistic regression indicated that age≥35 years old [odds ratio (OR)=0.799, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.681, 0.937), P=0.006], the educational background being bachelor degree or above [OR=1.221, 95%CI (1.036, 1.439), P=0.017], position [nurses vs. doctors: OR=1.339, 95%CI (1.112, 1.612), P=0.002; technicians vs. doctors: OR=1.849, 95%CI (1.278, 2.676), P=0.001], the hospital type being specialized hospital [OR=1.804, 95%CI (1.446, 2.251), P<0.001], hospital level [secondary vs. primary hospitals: OR=0.344, 95%CI (0.271, 0.437), P<0.001; tertiary vs. primary hospitals: OR=0.526, 95%CI (0.413, 0.671), P<0.001], influenza awareness [fair vs. poor: OR=1.262, 95%CI (1.057, 1.508), P=0.010; good vs. poor: OR=1.489, 95%CI (1.142, 1.940), P=0.003], vaccination willingness [OR=4.725, 95%CI (4.009, 5.569), P<0.001] were related factors of influenza vaccination in healthcare workers. The influenza awareness was good in 416 healthcare workers (12.8%), fair in 1989 (61.3%), and poor in 839 (25.9%). The correct rate of influenza vaccination frequency was the highest (82.7%), while the correct rate of influenza contraindication was the lowest (3.2%). Among the healthcare workers, 2206 (68.0%) were willing to be vaccinated, of whom 1548 (70.2%) believed that they could protect people with weak immune function around them after vaccination; 1038 were unwilling to be vaccinated with influenza vaccine in the near future, of whom 335 (32.3%) believed that they had strong immunity and did not need to be vaccinated. Conclusions The influenza vaccination rate of medical staff is related to a variety of factors. Strengthening the publicity and education, and encouraging hospitals to provide free influenza vaccination, especially the correct understanding of contraindications, may be helpful to improve the vaccination rate.
With nearly four decades of progress in healthcare-associated infection prevention and control in China, the national quality control efforts in this field have been ongoing for the past ten years, advancing rapidly with significant achievements. Over the last decade, the team of infection control professionals involved in quality management and control in China has consistently expanded, accompanied by an enhancement of their skills. Management capabilities have steadily grown, and operational mechanisms have been continuously refined. As public hospitals transition into a new phase of high-quality development, emphasizing refined management models and intrinsic development of medical quality, it becomes crucial to further fortify the foundation and foster innovation in infection control work to ensure quality. This article provides an overview of the establishment and implementation of the National Center for Quality Control of Infection Prevention and Control, examines the current shortcomings and challenges in the field, and collectively explores the positioning and direction of the development of quality control efforts for infection prevention and control in China.
The study investigates the current status of corporate governance structures in medical insurance agencies in typical cities and provinces in China, highlighting the challenges faced by corporate governance in these institutions. It advocates for the continued comprehensive promotion of the nationwide establishment of a unified corporate governance framework for medical insurance agencies. Furthermore, it recommends enhancing the legislative support system for corporate governance in medical insurance agencies to ensure the effective implementation of decision-making powers within these organizations. Additionally, the study proposes actively establishing social evaluation and supervision mechanisms for corporate governance to further enhance the corporate governance structure of medical insurance agencies in China.
Objective To use bibliometrics to identify research hotspots and emerging trends in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare-associated infections (HAI), as well as to offer a resource for more relevant research. Methods The literature on AI and HAI from the Science Citation Index Expanded database of the Web of Science Core Collection was retrieved through computer searches, covering the period from January 1, 1994, to January 22, 2024. VOSviewer (v1.6.19) and CiteSpace (v6.1. R6) software were utilized for bibliometric analysis, creating knowledge maps that include research cooperation networks and keyword analysis. Results A total of 305 documents were included, and both the number of early publications and the frequency of citations were at a very low level for a long time before showing an annual increase trend after 2018. The United States had the most published documents among the 50 countries/regions from where they were sourced. Harvard University was the scientific research institution with the most publications, while Professor Evans HL of the Medical University of South Carolina was the scholar with the most publications. Research on AI in the field of HAI primarily focused on three aspects: AI algorithms and technologies, monitoring and prediction of HAI, and the accuracy of HAI diagnosis and prediction. These findings were based on keyword co-occurrence and clustering analysis. Conclusions A new phase of AI research in the subject of HAI has begun. More in-depth research can be done in the future for the hot direction, as there is still a gap between China’s academic accomplishments in this subject and the advanced level of the world.
This article provides a thorough interpretation of the recommendations for implementation research in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention and control, jointly issued by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. The recommendations elaborate on the concepts, strategies, determinants, and evaluation methods of implementation research, as well as the commonly used theories, models, and frameworks (TMF) in the field of HAI prevention and control. By expounding on these TMF, this article aims to guide readers in deeply considering the scientific issues related to the implementation of hospital infection prevention and control, and to provide guidance on selecting and applying appropriate resources in specific environments and situations. The release of these recommendations aims to promote the implementation of evidence-based guidelines in medical institutions and ultimately achieve the goal of reducing the incidence of hospital infections by promoting and guiding the conduct of implementation research in the field of HAI prevention and control.
With the continuous development of medical technology, ambulatory surgery or day surgery is becoming a new and very efficient medical service model in China. However, infection prevention and control in ambulatory surgery center has not yet attracted the attention of infection control practitioners. This paper analyzes the necessity, status quo, and entry point of infection prevention and control work in ambulatory surgery centers. Recommendations in the field of risk assessment, engineering control, behavior management, surveillance, and antimicrobial stewardship are provided to infection control practitioners as well.
Objective Healthcare risk has become a popular topic in medical research field all over the world. With the increasing of healthcare safety adverse events and medical conflict cases every year, publications about this topic have been rapidly increased in China, but research on the essentials and categories of healthcare risk are still lacked. This paper aims to summarize the essentials and categories of healthcare risk research systematically through analyzing domestic studies in healthcare risk over the past decade, so as to provide decision-making evidences and policy suggenstions on healthcare risk management in China. Methods We searched the China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database of CNKI (1999-2010), in which those papers’ title containing the phrase of healthcare risk had been brought into our research, then we summerized the domestic concepts and contents in healthcare risk by essential analysis and frequency statistics. Results 255 papers were included, including 26 Class B papers (accounting for 10.20%), six Class C papers (accounting for 2.35%) and 223 Class D papers (accounting for 87.45%); but there were only 79 papers (accounting for 35.11% ) which had a clear definition of healthcare risk. From these papers, we found the essentials of healthcare risk included object, consequences, process and causes, and the research category of healthcare risk included prevention and treatment of risk, causes and effects of factors, risk sharing mechanisms, healthcare risk of special diseases, concept and characteristics, education and training, management method, risks of medical appliances, the species and object of healthcare risk, the category of healthcare risk, the research methods of healthcare risk etc. Conclusion At present, the study of healthcare risk focuses on the risk control and how to release risks from the results, besides, systematic studies are lacked, and the unified definition of healthcare risk has not been formed, Therefore, we recommend that systematic study of the healthcare risks should be strengthened, the definition of healthcare risk should be unified, and the early warning, monitoring, evaluating, and identifying methods should be positively developed, providing decision-making evidences to establish healthcare risk management system in China.
Electronic skin has shown great application potential in many fields such as healthcare monitoring and human-machine interaction due to their excellent sensing performance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. This paper starts from the materials selection and structures design of electronic skin, and summarizes their different applications in the field of healthcare equipment, especially current development status of wearable sensors with different functions, as well as the application of electronic skin in virtual reality. The challenges of electronic skin in the field of wearable devices and healthcare, as well as our corresponding strategies, are discussed to provide a reference for further advancing the research of electronic skin.
The increasing need for healthcare services in rural areas cannot be satisfied because of the lack of healthcare professionals, and poor medical education and training. These result in the low competency of rural healthcare workers. Therefore, the medical education system needs to be reformed in order to improve healthcare human resources in rural areas.
