Current Status and Problem of Infection Control in Clinics Affecting Visiting Nursing Stations

Abstract

A self-administered questionnaire survey on the current status of infection control in clinics affecting visiting nursing stations was administered, with responses from 108 of 404 clinics (26.7%) in two Japanese cities. The most common organizational source of information on infectious diseases was "Prefectural Medical Association/City Medical Association" in 72 cases, with the most commonly used resource being "national or prefectural circular letters" in 75 cases. In terms of infection prevention actions, implementation of cross-infection prevention measures tended to score highly, while levels of implementation of occupational infection prevention measures tended to be low. Clinics that responded that they "have infection control guidelines," "have an infection control committee," "have annexed branches," and "obtain information on infectious diseases from specialized books" scored highly overall in implementation of infection prevention measures (p<0.01). Of the 71 clinics that issued visiting nursing instructions, 60 (84.5%) provided information on infectious diseases to visiting nursing stations, but there was no standardization of timing, with 44 of those clinics (73.3%) providing this information "when the infectious disease was confirmed at consultation" and 29 of those clinics (48.3%) providing it "when visiting nursing began." Because many clinics that use syringe needles with safety devices supply the same needles to visiting nursing stations, and some clinics provide instructions on disposal methods for dangerous materials to visiting nurses dealing with waste materials, it seems that infection control by clinics has an influence on infection control by visiting nursing stations, and improved infection control and coordination by clinics could raise the standard of infection control in visiting nursing stations.