PSQH Quick Poll: Taking the Pulse of Infection Prevention Efforts

By Jay Kumar

As part of PSQH’s celebration of International Infection Prevention Week, we decided to reach out to our readers with a few questions to find out the state of infection prevention efforts.

The Quick Poll had a total of 271 respondents.

Infection prevention efforts

Asked to rate the infection prevention efforts of their organization, 57.2% of respondents said their program was extremely effective, 41.3% said their organization’s infection prevention was somewhat effective, and 1.5% said their efforts were not effective.

Organizational preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks

There has been some debate about how prepared the U.S. was for the COVID-19 outbreak, but from an organizational standpoint, a majority of respondents (63.1%) to the PSQH Quick Poll said they are very prepared for infectious disease outbreaks. Another 35.1% said they are somewhat prepared for future outbreaks, while 1.9% say they are not prepared.

Strength in various areas

We queried respondents on their perceived level of strength in various infection control areas. When it comes to healthcare-associated infection prevention, 49.1% of respondents say they are very strong, 45% say they’re somewhat strong, 5.2% say they are somewhat weak, and 0.7% say they are very weak. With hand hygiene compliance, 39.1% of respondents say they are very strong, 47.6% say they are somewhat strong, 12.2% consider themselves somewhat weak, and 1.1% say they are very weak.

Infectious disease surveillance and reporting was the strongest area, with 65.3% of respondents saying they were very strong, 26.6% saying they were somewhat strong, 7.8% saying they were somewhat weak, and 0.4% saying they were very weak.

In the area of employee education and health, 44.3% say they are very strong, 42.8% say they are somewhat strong, 12.2% say they are somewhat weak, and 0.7% say they are very weak. With regards to isolation, 47.6% say they are very strong, 42.4% say they are somewhat strong, 8.1% say they are somewhat weak, and 1.9% say they are very weak. And in the final category of sterilization and disinfection, 50.2% say they are very strong, 40.2% say they are somewhat strong, 8.9% say they are somewhat weak, and 0.7% say they are very weak.

Stocked up for flu season

As organizations continue to deal with a growing number of COVID-19 cases, influenza season is right around the corner. We asked respondents how well-stocked they were with infection control supplies (such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, disinfectant) as the cold weather approaches. A total of 39.9% say they are well stocked for the winter, 54.6% say they are stocked for now but could run out if there’s a surge of cases, and 5.5% say they are already low on supplies.

Infection Prevention Week is sponsored by: