ABSTRACT
Surveillance is an essential component of the infection prevention and control (IPC) programme, as its main aim is to reduce the risk of patients getting healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). A surveillance process can be active, with a process for seeking out HCAI cases, or it can be passive, which is dependent on a third party to fill out a form, chart and send it in to the infection prevention and control team for analysis. The implementation of outcome surveillance requires the support of a good-quality laboratory service, which can be a major issue, especially in low- to middle-income countries. Current medical advances and change in the delivery of healthcare have allowed shorter stays in hospital with higher throughput of patients. Root Cause Analysis is based on the concept that adverse events are minimised, eliminated by identifying the real issue and taking corrective action to eliminate the root causes rather than merely addressing the immediately obvious issues that have resulted in HCAIs.
