Risk Management of Health Associated Infection

Running head: RISK MANAGEMENT
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Introduction: Healthcare associated infection (HAI) has shown its prevalence among the
patients decreasing the quality of life, increasing length of stay, developing further
complications, slowing down the recovery and ultimately leading to mortality of the patients.
HAIs involve a range of infections that are mainly spread through infected hands of the health
workers (HWs). Not only the inpatients are susceptible to HAIs but also the healthcare workers
are at an increasing risk of getting infected. Thus, there is an increasing need to address the risk
areas through proper risk assessment and develop and implement strategies for risk management
(Hoffmann et al., 2019).
Rationale: Although, every health workers are aware of the role and importance of maintaining
hand hygiene in alleviating the risk of HAIs, a very few HWs actually practice in the clinical
settings by complying with the hand hygiene strategies to eradicate the risk of HAIs. Thus, the
risk management intervention, that is, monitoring the frequency of hand washing of the HWs,
must be designed in order to track or record their compliance with the same. According to the
WHO guidelines, the intervention program for reducing the risk of HAIs must aim at monitoring
every HWs adherence and compliance followed by feedback on their performance. Thus, with
respect to had hygiene, a strict monitoring system to provide routine system monitoring and
management must be deployed in order to risk management (Who.int, 2019).
Support: It has been reported that nearly 1.7 million hospitalized patients acquire HAIs during
the course of their treatment for other health conditions and around 98,000 patients among them
die as a result of HAIs. Such increased prevalence not only decreased patient safety, but also
raised questions on the safety of the workers. It is important to increase safety of the workers by

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educating them and monitoring their adherence in order to promote a safe working environment
and increase patent’s safety (Haque et al., 2018).
Implementation: The risk management strategy can be implemented by the following steps-
 Assessing and hygiene compliance among the healthcare workers.
 Re-educating them on the importance of hand hygiene and detrimental effects of HAIs.
 Creating awareness and educating them on the techniques of hand wash according to the
standards and professional conduct.
 Providing resources and materials required for maintaining hand hygiene.
 Encouraging and promoting hand hygiene through educational trainings and seminars.
 Monitoring their activity and tracking their hand washing compliance (Schmier et al.,
2016).
Challenges: Despite developing proper risk management strategies heath care organization often
face significant challenges and barriers in implementing those strategies. They are:
 Attitudinal barriers- Many health workers do not show compliance to hand hygiene
practices due to their personal beliefs and attitude towards the same.
 Lack of resource and tools- Lack of materials required to carry out the educational
training or lack of hand washes, alcohol based hand rub, liquid soap, gloves and other
sanitizing materials can act as barriers to implement the strategies (Chagpar et al., 2010).
Proposed solutions:
 Involving important local, regional or national stakeholders.
 Creating awareness on the importance of hand hygiene and monitoring their actions.

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Evaluate: With respect to had hygiene, a strict monitoring system will be effective in providing
routine system monitoring for risk management. It is also important to educate the HWs
regarding the strategies for maintaining hand hygiene in order to increase their compliance.
Opportunities: In addition to monitoring of hand hygiene compliance of the HWs, it is also
necessary to maintain a hygienic environment in order to increase patient’s as well as the
caregiver’s safety, increase health outcomes of the patients and decrease the overall burden of
HAIs. Proper disposal of clinically discarded materials and contaminated materials, proper
dispose of other wastages and availability of the necessary products and tools required.

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References
Chagpar, A., Banez, C., Lopez, R., & Cafazzo, J. A. (2010). Challenges of hand hygiene in
healthcare: the development of a tool kit to create supportive processes and
environments. Healthcare Quarterly, 13(2010), 59-66.
Haque, M., Sartelli, M., McKimm, J., & Bakar, M. A. (2018). Health care-associated infections–
an overview. Infection and drug resistance, 11, 2321.
Hoffmann, M., Sendlhofer, G., Pregartner, G., Gombotz, V., Tax, C., Zierler, R., & Brunner, G.
(2019). Interventions to increase hand hygiene compliance in a tertiary university hospital
over a period of 5 years: An iterative process of information, training and
feedback. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(5-6), 912-919.
Schmier, J. K., Hulme-Lowe, C. K., Semenova, S., Klenk, J. A., DeLeo, P. C., Sedlak, R., &
Carlson, P. A. (2016). Estimated hospital costs associated with preventable health care-
associated infections if health care antiseptic products were
unavailable. ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research: CEOR, 8, 197.
Who.int. (2019). WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care: a Summary. Retrieved 1
February 2020, from https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/tools/who_guidelines-
handhygiene_summary.pdf