Infection Prevention and Control

Infection Control in Critical Care

Caution is very important within the medical care unit (ICU). "We generally see a lot of infections in this population due to the length of time they may be in a unit. Infections acquired in the hospitals, especially in the intensive care unit (ICU) settings, ranging between 15% and 20%, may further lead to complications in >40% in critically ill patients. The order of incidence may vary in different settings, but the most usual causes are ventilator-associated pneumonia, intravascular catheter-associated bloodstream infection, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, posttraumatic intra-abdominal infection, and surgical site infection. Designated infection control teams should supervise the process and help in collection and compilation of data. Antibiotic Stewardship Recommendations include constituting a team, close coordination between teams, audit, formulary restriction, de-escalation, optimizing dosing, active use of information technology among other measure.