Objective To summarize and analysis the working experience of healthcare performance evaluation and reporting experience in local health administration department of Australia, and provide decision support to China on such work as establishing objective, scientific, effective healthcare performance evaluation system, strengthening government’s supervision over health service and improving healthcare system management efficiency. Methods Searching official networks and databases of Australia, and finding out relevant policy, reports, and documents on healthcare performance evaluation. Results Typical healthcare performance evaluation systems in Australian are as follos: National Health Performance Framework (NHPF), the National Healthcare Agreement（NHA）and Review of Government Service Provision. Conclusions These programs in Australian is enlightening to these work in China that performance evaluation should be the prior tool in health system to management and reform, the performance measurement indicators systems should emphasize the quality safety and health fair.We should set up scientific and flexible index inclusion criteria and open report and compare performance information.
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.
ObjectiveTo explore the continuous changing trend of healthcare-associated infection prevalence rate in a children’s hospital.MethodsFrom July 2012 to November 2018, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in hospitalized children for seven consecutive years by combining case-checking and bedside survey.ResultsA total of 10 310 hospitalized children were investigated in the past seven years. The incidence of healthcare-associated infections from 2012 to 2018 was 2.08%, 4.84%, 1.59%, 3.76%, 1.63%, 1.74%, and 2.08%, respectively, showing a statistically significant downward trend (LLA=7.631, P=0.006). The departments with higher proportion of healthcare-associated infections were pediatric surgery (50.0%), pediatric medicine (44.8%), neonatal medicine (2.8%), and intensive care units (2.4%) . Viruses (38.8%) were the most common pathogens of healthcare-associated infections, followed by Gram-negative bacteria (34.3%) .ConclusionsThe prevalence of healthcare-associated infections in the children’s hospital showed a downward trend year by year. Pediatric surgery is the most common occurrence department, and viruses are the most common pathogens. It can provide evidence for prevention and control of healthcare-associated infection in children’s hospitals.
Healthcare-associated infection outbreaks are a serious threat to patient safety and often cause serious consequences. The use of genotyping methods to identify the source of infection and the route of transmission in outbreaks is a critical point in controlling outbreaks. Recently, the use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) makes it faster and much more accurate. Compared with traditional methods, WGS can distinguish highly correlated pathogen lineages, track infection source accurately and help researchers understanding the propagation dynamics model, and even provide more target intervention information. The application of WGS technology in healthcare-associated infection outbreak investigation and control is reviewed in this paper, and its advantages and challenges are also evaluated.
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.
ObjectiveTo describe the status of epilepsy inpatients healthcare service in tertiary public hospitals in China by the data collected from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System.MethodsA population-based study was conducted with data of hospitalized patients collected from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System between 2015 and 2017. Diagnoses were identified by International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision codes for epilepsy (G40). The information of demographic characteristics, costs, payment methods, and discharge status were extracted and analyzed annually to make cross-sectional studies.ResultsA total of 329 241 hospitalized epilepsy patients from 585 tertiary public hospitals were identified. The average age of the patients was 31.74 and male patients accounted for 60.00% of the total. The proportion of patients covered by the national basic medical insurance in the three years was 50.15%, and that in the year 2015, 2016, and 2017 was 49.03%, 49.79%, and 51.80%, respectively; the proportion of patients with full self-payment was 30.40%. The average length of hospital stay was 6.65 d, the average cost for each stay was 7 985.53 yuan, the average self-payed cost for each stay was 3 979.62 yuan. In terms of the discharge way of the patients, 88.02% discharged following doctors’ advice, 0.40% were transferred to another hospital with doctors’ advice, and 6.59% discharged against doctors’ advice. The in-hospital mortality in the three years was 0.16%, and that in the year 2015, 2016, and 2017 was 0.19%, 0.16%, and 0.12%, respectively.ConclusionThe study shows that the in-hospital mortality rate of epilepsy inpatients in the tertiary public hospitals in China decreased gradually from 2015 to 2017, the coverage rate of national basic medical insurance increased year by year, and there is still room for further improvement.
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.
Objective Interpretation of the growing body of global literature on health care risk is compromised by a lack of common understanding and language. This series of articles aims to comprehensively compare laws and regulations, institutional management, and administration of incidence reporting systems on medical risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan, so as to provide evidence and recommendations for health care risk management policy in China. Methods?We searched the official websites of the healthcare risk management agencies of the four countries and one district for laws, regulatory documents, research reports, reviews and evaluation forms concerned with healthcare risk management and assessment. Descriptive comparative analysis was performed on relevant documents. Results?A total of 146 documents were included in this study, including 2 laws (1.4%), 17 policy documents (11.6%), 41 guidance documents (28.1%), 37 reviews (25.3%), and 49 documents giving general information (33.6%). The United States government implemented one law and one rule of patient safety management, while the United Kingdom and Australia each issued professional guidances on patient safety improvement. The four countries implemented patient safety management policy on four different levels: national, state/province/district, hospital, and non-governmental organization. Conclusion?The four countries and one district adopted four levels of patient safety management, and the administration modes can be divided into an “NGO-led mode” represented by the United States and Canada and a “government-led mode” represented by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Taiwan.
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 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.