Impact of certified infection preventionists in acute care settings: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Health care-associated infection (HAI) is a common adverse event affecting patient safety. This review aims to (1) establish evidence for the impact of certified infection prevention and control (CIC) specialists on infection prevention and patient safety in acute care settings and (2) summarize study design and statistical modeling used for impact assessment to inform future studies. METHODS: We searched and reviewed full-text, quantitative studies assessing the impact of CIC. The studies used empirical data published in English between January 2000 and April 2021 in PubMed, PsycINFO, and EMBASE. We identified 8 articles for data extraction and analysis. All eight studies used a cross-sectional design and had a quality rating of good to high based on the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice rating scales. RESULTS: CIC infection preventionists (IPs) may have a stronger understanding than other practitioners of the evidence for certain infection prevention practices and are more likely to recommend implementing them in the hospitals where they work, especially when the lead IP is certified. The association between CIC and HAI rates was inconsistent in our results. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are needed to explore the impact of CIC IPs on HAI rates.