Infection Control Practice in Acute Care Centers Essay

Infection Control Practice in Acute Care Centers - Essay Example Other recent estimates indicate that the average annual costs related to hospital acquired infections currently range from$4.5 billion to $11 billion. The substantial patient morbidity of the healthcare associated inflections is particularly attributed to a number of risk factors that significantly increases the susceptibility of hospitalized patients to infections by viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. Compared to others, patients hospitalized or under intensive care units often have a significantly higher risk of developing infections. Generally, some of the major risks include poor or compromised immune systems of hospitalized patients due to illnesses, overcrowding, invasive medical procedures that are often carried out in patients in acute healthcare centers and most importantly, poor infection control practices among nurses and other medical staff in many acute healthcare centers. Although hospital-based infection control measures and policies have been in place since the 1950s, the risk of health care acquired infections continues to be higher due to the lack of proper application, malpractices and implementation of these policies. For example, in most cases, the absence of effective infection practices such as failures to follow proper procedures or conform with the infection control guidelines often result in poor conditions thereby causing hospitalized patients to develop infections. Some of the likely reasons for the non compliance with hospital acquired infection control policies among nurses and other medical staff in acute healthcare centers often include work overload, lack of motivation, time, education, patient turnover, staff attitude and state barriers. However, substantial empirical evidence suggests that many hospital acquired infections can effectively be prevented or reduced through a number of strategies of improving infection control