The Importance of Infection Control Systems for all Health Specialties in Healthcare Facilities

Abstract

Large differences in infection control adherence in various health specialties are one of the gaps in patient safety literature since most research on the topic has focused on individual professional groups but not comparatively within the same institutional setting. The objective of conducting this study was therefore to compare and analyze the compliance of nurses, physicians and environmental services staff in terms of infection control, and identify the impediments and facilitators of adherence in both groups. A cross-sectional mixed-design was used in a tertiary care hospital, which included 300 participants (100 participants in each specialty) using questionnaires that measured the compliance, and the perception of barriers and facilitators through a validated questionnaire. Qualitative depth was provided through semi-structured interviews on 36 people. One-way ANOVA found the significant differences in compliance scores between specialties (F(2,297) = 48.23, p< 0.001), with nurses showing the most adherence (mean=91.2, SD=6.5), then, physicians (mean=82.5, SD=9.1), and lastly, the lowest compliance scores were found in environmental services staff (mean=78.1, SD=10.4). The results of the multiple regression analysis have shown that barrier perception ( -0.41, p<0.001) and facilitator perception ( -0.35, p<0.001) were the toughest independent variables predicting compliance, whereas specialty membership still retained a significant one. The determination was found to be based on qualitative themes such as workload pressures, language barriers, and professional hierarchy. These results indicate that infection control involves multidisciplinary approaches to different barriers associated with each group of professionals, and the environmental services personnel should be prioritized that has been previously forgotten.