National survey of hospital infection control organization in Italian public hospitals.

ABSTRACT

A questionnaire was mailed to 1073 Italian public hospitals in an attempt to find out if infection control programmes existed, the type of programme used and available resources. After two attempts a total of 54.9 per cent of the hospitals responded to the request and of these 16.1 per cent claimed to have an infection control programme. Sixty-six per cent of the hospitals who have a control programme also have a system of continuous surveillance whilst the remainder investigated epidemics only. Infection control programmes were encountered most frequently in paediatrics, obstetrics and surgical departments. The organisms most often surveyed were the salmonellas, other types of enterobacteria, staphylococci and streptococci.