Infection Prevention & Control Unit

IJN’s Infection Prevention Program is designed to improve the quality of care through the management of infection prevention, education and research. The Infection Control team collects data on hospital acquired infections and analyses the data to identify patterns and trends.

Hand Hygiene Compliance

Washing your hands regularly is the single most effective way of preventing the spread of many common infections. When healthcare workers for example, doctors and nurses, keep their hands clean, they help prevent the spread of serious healthcare associated infections which may occur during hospitalization.

What are we doing to improve?

We help prevent the spread of these infections by cleaning our hands using the “My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene” method as recommended by the World Health Organization.

Hand Hygiene Compliance Rate

The graph shows compliance rate by healthcare worker category that includes doctors, nurses and allied health personnel. The annual overall rate has shown a gradual improvement towards the Ministry of Health target of ≥75% compliance.

IJN is committed to promoting hand hygiene practice at the point of care amongst our staff.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

MRSA is a type of bacteria that is resistant to several antibiotics and if left untreated, infections can become severe.

In IJN, the MRSA incidence rate is 0.1% in year 2022.

Catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI)

CRBSI is caused by bacteria originating from an intravenous catheter and is the most common cause of a hospital-acquired infection. A dedicated team educates staff and promotes best practices to reduce CRBSI. 

We calculate the total number of CRBSI cases against 1000 line-days. In 2022, the CRBSI rate was 4.0 per 1000 line-days.

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

VAP is defined as a hospital acquired pneumonia in a patient on mechanical ventilatory support (by endotracheal  tube or tracheostomy).

We calculate the VAP rate as total number of VAP cases  against 1000 ventilator-days. In IJN, the VAP rate is 1.2 per 1000 ventilator-days in year 2022.

NB: There is no minimum period of time that the ventilator must be in place in order for the pneumonia to be considered ventilator- associated.

Wound surveillance for Isolated CABG

We monitor the rate of surgical site infection for isolated CABG based on the total number of cases with wound infection against the total number of patients who undergo CABG.

From January to September 2022, the average rate of surgical site infection was at 3.5%.

For Quality Performance Report, click here