Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI)

"Infection Prevention is Everybody's Business"

HAI Program Publications

• Reducing harm to patients from healthcare associated infection: the role of surveillance


• Draft data set specification - Surveillance of Healthcare Associated Infections: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia and Clostridium difficile infection (Version 2.0) (PDF 345 KB)

• Literature review of The Infection Control Practitioners' Scope of Practice (PDF 307 KB)


• Review of Australian Infection Control Programs: The Scope of Practice of the Infection Control Professional/Practitioner/Consultant with national stakeholders (PDF 241 KB)


• Draft Elements of an Infection Control Program (PDF 3,555 KB)

• Newsletters

About the Program

1. National Surveillance for the prevention of HAI's
   The National Surveillance Initiative seeks to explore options for a national surveillance system to monitor HAI and provide timely feedback to jurisdictions and clinicians.


2. Building Clinician Capacity Project
   Surveys and workshops of Infection Control Practitioners undertaken by the Commission have shown a disparity in skill and resources for this group across health care settings. This project has been designed to close any skill or knowledge-based gaps by providing educational packages/toolkits for Infection Control Practitioners upon whom the implementation of the overall HAI program is almost entirely dependant.


3. National Infection Control Guidelines
   To ensure permanent currency and greater usability of the National Infection Control Guidelines, NHMRC has been engaged to develop guidelines based on the best available evidence. Training and education modules will be developed to drive implementation.


4. National Hand Hygiene Project
   The National Hand Hygiene Initiative has been set up to develop a national hand hygiene culture-change program that will standardise hand hygiene practice and placement of alcohol-based hand rub in every Australian hospital.


5. Antimicrobial Stewardship Project
   The project will assess current antibiotic surveillance processes in Australia including their appropriateness and effectiveness for assisting in the reduction of healthcare associated infections and limiting the increase in the prevalence of multi-resistant organisms. This project is informed by the findings and recommendations relating to multi-resistant organisms and antimicrobial usage in the publication Reducing harm to patients from health care associated infection: the role of antimicrobial stewardship in Australian hospitals.

Committees

Antimicrobial Stewardship Advisory Committee
Hand Hygiene Advisory Committee
Implementation Advisory Committee
Infection Control Guidelines Steering Committee
National HAI Advisory Committee

HAI Events

Committee meetings for 2010

23 February 2010 - Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee Meeting
24 February 2010 - HAI Advisory Committee Meeting
23 April 2010 - Implementation Advisory Committee Meeting
18 May 2010 - Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee Meeting
19 May 2010 - HAI Advisory Committee Meeting
30 July 2010 - Implementation Advisory Committee Meeting
17 August 2010 - Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee Meeting
18 August 2010 - HAI Advisory Committee Meeting
22 October 2010 - Implementation Advisory Committee Meeting
23 November 2010 - Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee Meeting
24 November 2010 - HAI Advisory Committee Meeting

Other events in 2010

5 May 2010 - World Health Organization - Save Your Lives, Clean Your Hands Day
4-6 October 2010 - Australian Infection Control Association National Conference, Perth Western Australia

Links to other HAI websites

The Utilisation Surveillance Program provides bi-monthly data on antimicrobial utilisation rates from 23 hospitals from six states/territories.

Contacts