Vårdhygien på infektionsavdelningar för smådjur – en intervjustudie

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The isolation facility is an important ward in veterinary hospitals. This is where infectious patients are treated in order to reduce the risk for cross-contamination between the infectious patients and other patients and humans in the hospital. But it can only function in a safe manner as long as adequate precautions for infection control are adhered to. This has shown to be a problem in many isolation facilities in veterinary hospitals in Sweden. AIM: The aim of this paper was to examine which factors that can affect the quality of the infection control in the isolation facility. The aim is also to stress the importance of adequate infection control practices. METHOD: Two interviews were conducted with staff from two veterinary hospitals. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and the data was then summarized and categorized. RESULTS: There proved to be a significant difference in the infection control standards between the two veterinary hospitals. Many flaws regarding the infection control became evident in one of the veterinary hospitals. These flaws were mainly associated to the design of the ward, adherence to infection control practices and personnel issues. Reasons to the flaws showed to be lack of time, lack of written guidelines and lack of adherence, lack of role models and lack of knowledge, among others. Potential consequences of the flaws are cross-contamination and thus an increased risk for healthcare associated infections among the patients. In contrast, infection control was clearly a priority in the other veterinary hospital that participated in this study. There were some flaws in this hospital too but not as extensive. There were written guidelines and all the staff got thorough instructions. There also seemed to be enough time in relation to the workload in the ward. These things seemed to be important factors that affected the quality of the infection control. CONCLUSION: There are many factors that can affect the quality of the infection control. Examples are the design of the ward, the extent of the written guidelines, education, role models and resources in terms of time. Adequate infection control practices have been shown to have a significant impact on reducing the risk for healthcare associated infections.