Office of Infection Control and Prevention

Keiji Okinaka, Asako Hashimoto

Introduction

The Office of Infection Control and Prevention was established in October 2016. The objective of our office is to promote the practice of hospital infection control in order to reduce transmission of communicable diseases among patients, health care workers, and visitors.

Our team and what we do

Our missions are:

- Surveillance of healthcare associated infections and drug resistant bacteria in order to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease

- Inspecting and improving quality of hospital environment using ward rounds

- Inspecting and Improving compliance with hand hygiene and other infection control measures using ward rounds

- Promoting antimicrobial stewardship

- Preventing and managing needle stick injury

- Vaccination for staff with insufficient protective immunity

- Planning conferences among regional hospitals to promote the improvement of infection control in each hospital

Education

We have conducted staff education on various infection control practices, which includes lectures based on up-to-date evidence and on-site feedback regarding the results of ward rounds.

Future prospects

In 2016, we implemented direct observation methodology to evaluate health workers'hand hygiene compliance. By using these data, we create an action plan for further improvement in compliance with hand hygiene. We keep creating safe patient care through appropriate infection control measures.