Infection Prevention Control QIP National Report 2022-23

RCEM – February 2024

This Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) builds on two previous cycles of the IPC QIP, completed in 2020-21 and 2021-22 by the College. It is the concluding report for this QIP’s three-year period; the enclosed report analyses the results from 2022-23 cycle and discusses the QIP’s findings across all three years.
The QIP standards were focused on both organisational policies and clinical care, gathering data on over 65,000 patients in its three-year period. The results show that over the QIP’s three-year period, performance has dropped across all the QIP’s standards and time to isolate patients has increased nationally. In some instances, performance has dropped by over 20% across the three years, highlighting the need for trusts and hospitals to return to placing IPC at the top of their agendas as was done in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the Report – RCEM National Quality Improvement Programme National Report

Infection prevention and control (IPC) in adult social care: acute respiratory infection (ARI) – Guidance

DHSC and UKHSA – Published 31 January 2024

This guidance sets out the measures that can help to reduce the spread of viral acute respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in adult social care settings in England.

It applies to:

• adult social care providers
• managers of adult social care services
• adult social care staff

The guidance also contains information that is relevant to:

• local authorities
• NHS services
• service users
• personal assistants
• unpaid carers
• visitors in adult social care settings and services

Infection prevention and control (IPC) in adult social care: acute respiratory infection (ARI)

Infection related deaths of children and young people in England

HQIP – 14th December 2023

The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) has published its latest Thematic Report. Based on data from April 2019 to March 2022, this report includes child deaths where infection may have contributed to the death and those where infection provided a complete and sufficient explanation of death, and covers:

• Variations in incidence of child deaths with infection
• Infection related deaths
• Characteristics of children who died where infection may have contributed or caused the death and where infection provided a complete and sufficient explanation of death
• Details of the infections and their clinical presentations.

It also includes learning from Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) completed child death reviews where death was categorised as infection, as well as next steps.

Read the Report – Infection related deaths of children and young people in England

RCEM National Quality Improvement Programme 2021/22 Infection Prevention and Control

RCEM – April 2023

This Quality Improvement Project (QIP) builds on previous Infection Prevention and Control QIP done in 2020/21 by the College and allows us to see that performance has remained stable with no significant improvement from 20/21 nor across 21/22. The results also show that the average time to movement into a side room has significantly increased from 18 minutes in 20/21 to 61 minutes in 21/22

Further information – RCEM National Quality Improvement Programme 2021/22 Infection Prevention and Control

Education Framework for the Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner (IPC) Workforce

NHS England – 2023

This framework sets out clear outcomes for the development and growth of a skilled workforce, to promote the confidence and leadership skills necessary to ensure practitioners challenge, and effectively support the reliable implementation of safe standards of care for the patients we serve.

Education Framework for the Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner (IPC) Workforce

UK Vessel Health and Preservation Framework 2020: a users’ survey

BJN – April 2023

The review and update of the UK Vessel Health and Preservation Framework 2020 (VHP2020) was undertaken by a working group that included members of the Infection Prevention Society, the Royal College of Nursing, the National Infusion and Vascular Access Society and the Medusa Advisory Board and was launched in 2020. The VHP working group developed a survey to understand whether the VHP2020 had reached its intended audience, and what respondents thought were the benefits and drawbacks of its use in practice. Although the survey response was lower than expected, the responses received were largely positive and have provided feedback on how the VHP2020 is being used and some of the benefits. Most importantly, the survey has highlighted the need to communicate the benefits of the framework more effectively to reach a wider audience.

Further information – UK Vessel Health and Preservation Framework 2020: a users’ survey

Background – UK Vessel Health and Preservation Framework 2020

National infection prevention and control manual: Methodology

NHS England – 27th January 2023

This guidance sets out the defined methodology that will be used to develop the infection prevention control evidence base for England.

The national infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM) is an evidence-based practice guide for use in England. It contains standard infection control precautions (SICPs) and transmission-based precautions (TBPs), which when applied correctly can help reduce the risk of healthcare associated infection (HCAI) and ensure the safety of those being cared for, staff and visitors in the care environment.

The NIPCM aims to:

• make it easy for health and care staff to apply effective infection prevention and control (IPC) precautions
• reduce variation and optimise infection prevention and control practices throughout England
• help reduce the risk of HCAI
• help align practice, monitoring, quality improvement and scrutiny.

The NIPCM should be applied by all NHS staff involved in patient care. Furthermore, the principles in the NIPCM should be applied across all care settings (including acute, community and social care), complementing specific guidance produced for these settings. Several supporting tools (appendices) are available to complement the NIPCM.

Further information National infection prevention and control manual: Methodology

Infection control precautions

Standard infection control precautions: national hand hygiene and personal protective equipment policy | NHS Improvement

This national policy is a practice guide for NHS healthcare staff of all disciplines in all care settings. It covers responsibilities for organisations, staff and infection prevention and control teams. It also sets out how and when to decontaminate hands.

The national policy aims to:

• support a common understanding (making the right thing easy to do for every patient, every time)
• reduce variation in practice and standardise care processes
• improve how knowledge and skills are applied in infection prevention and control
• help reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infection
• help to align practice, education, monitoring, quality improvement and scrutiny

Full document: Standard infection control precautions: national hand hygiene and personal protective equipment policy

Reducing the Risk of Mouth to Mouth Transmission of Pathogens Via Parking Tickets

In the initial phase of our study 598 staff members were observed entering the carpark. 21.6% of them put their parking ticket in their mouth | Journal of Hospital Infection

Using UV dye we successfully demonstrated card-to-card cross-contamination. Swabs of the ticket machine yielded commensal bacteria: coagulase negative staphylococci and a Bacillus species.

After placing a poster on the ticket-reading machine highlighting this potential infection risk, a further 1366 observations resulted in a statistically significant and persistent decline in the proportion of staff putting their carpark tickets in their mouths (p<0.001).

Full reference: Groves, J. et al. (2017) Reducing the Risk of Mouth to Mouth Transmission of Pathogens Via Reusable, Machine-read, Parking Tickets. An observational cohort study. Journal of Hospital Infection. Published online: June 08, 2017

Patients’ Hand Washing and Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection

Stacy Haverstick et al. | Patients’ Hand Washing and Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection
Critical Care Nurse | June 2017 | 37:e1-e8;

Background:  Hand hygiene is important to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Patients’ hand hygiene is just as important as hospital workers’ hand hygiene. Hospital-acquired infection rates remain a concern across health centers.

Objectives: To improve patients’ hand hygiene through the promotion and use of hand washing with soap and water, hand sanitizer, or both and improve patients’ education to reduce hospital-acquired infections.

Methods: In August 2013, patients in a cardiothoracic postsurgical step-down unit were provided with individual bottles of hand sanitizer. Nurses and nursing technicians provided hand hygiene education to each patient. Patients completed a 6-question survey before the intervention, at hospital discharge and 1, 2, and 3 months after the intervention. Hospital-acquired infection data were tracked monthly by infection prevention staff.

Results: Significant correlations were found between hand hygiene and rates of infection with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (P = .003) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (P = .01) after the intervention. After the implementation of hand hygiene interventions, rates of both infections declined significantly and patients reported more staff offering opportunities for and encouraging hand hygiene.

Conclusion: This quality improvement project demonstrates that increased hand hygiene compliance by patients can influence infection rates in an adult cardiothoracic step-down unit. The decreased infection rates and increased compliance with hand hygiene among the patients may be attributed to the implementation of patient education and the increased accessibility and use of hand sanitizer.