Leadership needed to reduce hospital infections

Strong leadership, appropriate staffing levels and better management of staff workloads should be just as important as hand hygiene and environmental cleanliness in the battle to reduce healthcare-associated infections such as MRSA and C difficile, a report says.

Hospital Organisation and Management Factors in Infection Control, produced by King's College, London, for the Royal College of Nursing, suggests infection rates are lower where there is strong leadership, fully staffed wards and manageable workloads.

RCN chief executive and general secretary Dr Peter Carter said previously there had been very little research into what impact organisations and management can have on infection control.

For more details, see www.rcn.org.uk