KDCA Announces 'Measures for Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections'... "Creating a Safe Medical Environment Free from Infections"

To prevent infections within medical institutions, facility standards for high-risk areas such as intensive care units and hemodialysis rooms will be further strengthened, and the installation of infection control offices and designation of personnel will be mandated even for small and medium-sized hospitals with fewer than 100 beds. Support and surveillance systems for long-term care hospitals vulnerable to infectious diseases will also be expanded, along with enhanced education for healthcare workers.

Medical staff wearing protective suits. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the "2nd Comprehensive Plan for Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention and Control (2023?2027)" on the 12th, outlining these measures. This plan was developed under the vision of "Safe Healthcare for All from Infections, Healthy Citizens," through the operation of a task force composed of healthcare-associated infection academic societies and related government departments, which identified detailed tasks and collected opinions.

Healthcare-associated infections are infections that occur within medical institutions affecting patients, caregivers, healthcare workers, or other medical staff. Due to the characteristics of medical facilities?such as patients’ weakened immunity, invasive procedures and use of medical devices, and the hospitalization and treatment environment?infections can occur anytime and anywhere, potentially leading to fatal outcomes. Although healthcare-associated infections in Korea have generally decreased through continuous efforts, deaths from sepsis and infections caused by CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae) are increasing, necessitating prevention and management.

This plan consists of four main strategies: ▲improving facility and environmental management systems in medical institutions ▲advancing infection control system foundations and capacity building ▲enhancing the appropriateness of infection control evaluations and support ▲and reorganizing the healthcare-associated infection response system. First, regarding facilities and environment, the standards for intensive care units and hemodialysis rooms, identified as high-risk infection areas, will be revised and established. For intensive care units, standards for negative pressure isolation rooms and single rooms will be strengthened, and for hemodialysis rooms, new facility standards including bed area, essential equipment, and handwashing facilities will be set. Specific ventilation standards will also be established for infection-vulnerable facilities.

The mandatory standards for installing infection control offices and designating dedicated personnel, currently required only for hospital-level medical institutions with 100 or more beds, will also be strengthened. Infection control activities in small and medium-sized hospitals with fewer than 100 beds will be reinforced, aiming to expand the requirement to hospital-level institutions with 80 or more beds by 2027. Additionally, the number of medical institutions participating in healthcare-associated infection prevention and control projects, which was 276 last year, will be increased to over 400 by 2027 to improve infection surveillance capacity and infection control quality in small and long-term care hospitals.

A differentiated infection control surveillance system will be considered according to types such as acute care hospitals, long-term care hospitals, and clinics. For example, in long-term care hospitals, respiratory infection surveillance indicators will be added to the existing urinary tract infection surveillance, and the number of participating institutions will be increased from 55 to 300 by 2027. At the same time, considering the characteristics of long-term care hospitals, a separate infection prevention and control fee for long-term care hospitals will be introduced to optimize support and compensation.

Other initiatives include establishing a continuous inspection and communication system between public health centers and medical institutions, developing and distributing standard scenarios for CRE response, and building reduction strategy models. Ji Young-mi, Commissioner of the KDCA, stated, "With the establishment of this comprehensive plan, a foundation for infection control policies suitable for the post-COVID-19 medical environment has been laid. We will actively communicate with medical sites to implement detailed tasks to minimize the risk of healthcare-associated infections and create a safe medical environment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.