Abstract
Reducing healthcare-associated infections often requires the use of both technical and adaptive strategies. The experiences of Semmelweis and Nightingale teach us the importance of social adaptation of technical interventions. Because most infection prevention interventions require widespread participation by healthcare personnel, it is helpful for infectious diseases physicians to learn principles of diffusion of innovations theory and apply them to influence different groups. Comprehensive unit-based program has been successful in reducing device-associated infections. Positive deviance as a socioadaptive approach may be promising. These and other approaches such as social network analysis, relational coordination, link nurses, and stop the line policies need to be further evaluated in future studies. Future research on socioadaptive interventions needs to focus on developing tools and strategies for diagnosing local context and study how these interventions might influence culture of safety. Strategies to sustain momentum of improvement efforts in different healthcare settings need to be refined and further developed through additional research.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | Open Forum Infectious Diseases |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2019 |
Keywords
- Healthcare personnel
- Healthcare-associated infections
- Infection control
- Social adaptation
- Socioadaptive interventions
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Clinical Neurology