PSQH Quick Poll 2021: 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 244 respondents.

Infection prevention efforts

Asked to rate the infection prevention efforts of their organization, 54.9% of respondents said their program was extremely effective, 43.9% said their organization’s infection prevention was somewhat effective, and 1.3% said their efforts were not effective.

 

Organizational preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks

As U.S. healthcare organizations continue to battle COVID-19, another flu season is right around the corner. From an organizational standpoint, a majority of respondents (61.8%) to the PSQH Quick Poll said they are very prepared for infectious disease outbreaks. Another 35.4% said they are somewhat prepared for future outbreaks, while 3.4% 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, 45.5% of respondents say they are very strong, 47.5% say they’re somewhat strong, 6.2% say they are somewhat weak, and 2.5% say they are very weak. With hand hygiene compliance, 32.8% of respondents say they are very strong, 48% say they are somewhat strong, 16.8% consider themselves somewhat weak, and 1.2% say they are very weak.

Infectious disease surveillance and reporting was the strongest area, with 63.9% of respondents saying they were very strong, 27.9% saying they were somewhat strong, 7% saying they were somewhat weak, and 1.2% saying they were very weak.

In the area of employee education and health, 33.3% say they are very strong, 51.4% say they are somewhat strong, 13.2% say they are somewhat weak, and 2.1% say they are very weak. With regards to isolation, 53% say they are very strong, 35.2% say they are somewhat strong, 10.2% say they are somewhat weak, and 1.7% say they are very weak. And in the final category of sterilization and disinfection, 56.1% say they are very strong, 34.3% say they are somewhat strong, 7.5% say they are somewhat weak, and 2.1% say they are very weak.

 

 

Prepared for OSHA’s COVID-19 ETS

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) in June and another is expected soon. Asked how prepared their organization is to comply with the current ETS, a total of 53.9% of respondents say they are very prepared, 43.2% say they are somewhat prepared, and 2.9% say they are not prepared.