Implementation of the Infection Risk Scan (IRIS) in nine hospitals in the Belgian-Dutch border region (i-4-1-Health project)

Martine Verelst*, Ina Willemsen, Veronica Weterings, Pascal De Waegemaeker, Isabelle Leroux-Roels, Ellen Nieuwkoop, Veroniek Saegeman, Lieke van Alphen, Stefanie van Kleef-van Koeveringe, Marjolein Kluytmans-van den Bergh, Jan Kluytmans, Annette Schuermans, i-4-1-Health Study Group

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A tool, the Infection Risk Scan has been developed to measure the quality of infection control and antimicrobial use. This tool measures various patient-, ward- and care-related variables in a standardized way. We describe the implementation of this tool in nine hospitals in the Dutch/Belgian border area and the obtained results.

METHODS: The IRIS consists of a set of objective and reproducible measurements: patient comorbidities, (appropriate) use of indwelling medical devices, (appropriate) use of antimicrobial therapy, rectal carriage of Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacterales and their clonal relatedness, environmental contamination, hand hygiene performance, personal hygiene of health care workers and presence of infection prevention preconditions. The Infection Risk Scan was implemented by an expert team. In each setting, local infection control practitioners were trained to achieve a standardized implementation of the tool and an unambiguous assessment of data.

RESULTS: The IRIS was implemented in 34 wards in six Dutch and three Belgian hospitals. The tool provided ward specific results and revealed differences between wards and countries. There were significant differences in the prevalence of ESBL-E carriage between countries (Belgium: 15% versus The Netherlands: 9.6%), environmental contamination (median adenosine triphosphate (ATP) level Belgium: 431 versus median ATP level The Netherlands: 793) and calculated hand hygiene actions based on alcohol based handrub consumption (Belgium: 12.5/day versus The Netherlands: 6.3/day) were found.

CONCLUSION: The Infection risk Scan was successfully implemented in multiple hospitals in a large cross-border project and provided data that made the quality of infection control and antimicrobial use more transparent. The observed differences provide potential targets for improvement of the quality of care.

Original languageEnglish
Article number43
Number of pages15
JournalAntimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Feb 2022

Keywords

  • Benchmarking
  • CARRIAGE
  • Guidelines
  • Infection prevention
  • PREVALENCE
  • Surveillance

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