TUESDAY, Oct. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A novel calculator allows facilities to staff their infection prevention and control program based on individual factors, according to a study published online Oct. 10 in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Rebecca Bartles, Dr.P.H., from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Center for Research, Practice, and Innovation in Arlington, Virginia, and colleagues created and validated an online calculator utilizing risk and complexity factors to generate individualized infection prevention and control staffing ratios.

The researchers found that the median infection preventionist full-time equivalent-to-bed ratio was 121.0 beds among the 390 participating hospitals. The calculator deemed most respondent staffing as below expected (79.2 percent). There was a significant association between higher standard infection ratio ranges and staffing status for central line-associated bloodstream infection, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, Clostridioides difficile infections, and colon surgical site infections.

“This facility-specific calculator for infection prevention and control staffing levels is a completely novel tool for our community and one that is clearly needed to help hospitals advocate for adequate resources to keep patients and health care workers safe,” Bartles said in a statement. “We look forward to updating the calculator soon with new categories and more granularity based on our experience with the beta tool and to making it available to the infection prevention and broader health care communities.”

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