National group surveys pediatric infection control
Aim is to detect, prevent nosocomial infections
A national consortium of children’s hospitals is forming to better detect and prevent nosocomial infections and antibiotic-resistant pathogens in pediatric patients, project planners report.
Coordinated by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) in Alexandria, VA, the project will be funded during its first year with a $200,000 cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The program currently includes 36 hospitals nationally, including 11 where program pilot testing was done and 25 additional facilities that will participate in data gathering.
"The first thing that we are doing is a survey of all the participating hospitals to identify the various hospital characteristics in general and those related to infection control," explains Shirley Girouard, PhD, RN, FAAN, vice president of child health and financing for NACHRI.
The survey will assess such demographics as staffing, budget, surveillance activities, electronic communication methods, organization, and program processes, Girouard notes.
"This will give us a real baseline on where people are in terms of their structures and processes that relate to nosocomial infections and antimicrobial-resistant infections," she explains.
More specific projects involving clinical practice are expected to follow, including possibly developing standards for infection control in children’s hospitals, she adds.
"The money from the CDC is for basic operational support for the cooperative agreement, but we will need to seek other funding to do additional research," Girouard says. "To really do anything major, we’re going to be looking for other sources of support."
A promising opportunity’
Researchers report that multiple factors contribute to the differences in nosocomial infections in infants and young children and those in adults. Differences include host factors, sources of infection, routes of transmission, and distribution of pathogens.1
Host factors contributing to risk for nosocomial infection include congenital abnormalities and immaturity of the immune system, especially in newborns and premature infants. The rates of nosocomial infections in neonatal intensive care units have been reported to be as high as 7% to 25%.
"This is a promising opportunity to identify effective infection prevention interventions specifically for those caring for children," says William Jarvis, MD, acting director of the CDC’s hospital infections program.
NACHRI is a not-for-profit membership association including 154 acute care children’s hospitals, large pediatric units of major medical centers, and related organizations.
Pediatric infection control practitioners or others interested in participating in the program can contact the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions via telephone: (703) 684-1355; fax: (703) 684-1589; or by writing to 401 Wythe St., Alexandria, VA 22314.
Reference
1. Harris JS. Pediatric nosocomial infections: Children are not little adults. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1997; 18:739-742.
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