Allied Healthcare: Infection Control

What We Do

The Infection Prevention & Control Program was developed to describe the comprehensive Stanford Health Care (SHC) Program designed for the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The Infection Control Program is directed by the hospital epidemiologist (Infection Control Officer) and by the Infection Control Committee (ICC), and implemented by the Infection Prevention & Control Department (IPCD). The Director of the IPCD has overall responsibility for assuring that SHC is in compliance with federal, state and county health agency regulations, recommendations, and SHC policies and procedures as they relate to the prevention of healthcare associated infections.

The goal of the SHC Infection Control Program is to reduce the risk of acquisition and transmission of HAIs. SHC achieves this goal by:

• Incorporating the Infection Control Program as a major component of the safety and performance improvement programs.
• Performing an ongoing assessment to identify risks for the acquisition and transmission of infectious agents.
• Using an epidemiologic approach that consists of surveillance, data collection and trend identification.
• Effectively implementing infection prevention and control processes.
• Educating and collaborating with hospital-wide leaders to effectively encourage participation in the design and implementation of the Infection Control Program.
• Integrating its efforts with healthcare and community leaders to the extent practicable, recognizing that infection prevention and control is a community-wide effort.
• By remaining a viable community resource, SHC has plans in place for responding to infections that could potentially overwhelm its resources.