ABSTRACT
Infections drive antibiotic use, which contributes to development of resistance, and resistance leads to increased utilization of antibiotics and resources. More than any interventional hospital program, infection control is founded on traditions and proven methods of epidemiology. In 1953, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations began promulgating infection control standards. In 1970, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that hospitals have an infection control nurse and a hospital epidemiologist. The most important activity of an infection control program is surveillance, the monitoring of definable events in a given population. Alcohol-based hand rubs decrease the time needed for hand hygiene, are less irritating, and are better accepted by health care personnel. Urinary tract infections (UTI) account for about 40% of all hospital-acquired infections. Instrumentation, particularly indwelling catheterization, is responsible for the majority of nosocomial UTIs. Therefore, using these catheters only when indicated, inserting and maintaining them properly, and removing them when they are no longer needed are important.
