Public Health Centers' Training Session Programs to Develop Programs on Infection Control Practices for Multidrug-Resistant Organisms in Hospitals in Kawaguchi City, Japan

Introduction The Kawaguchi City Public Health Center (PHC) conducted training sessions focusing on infection control practices on multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) for 19 hospitals and eight affiliated clinics (AFs) with beds in June 2022. Issues with infection control programs were identified via a survey implemented following the training sessions. These included providing feedback on infection control policies for MDROs, hand hygiene compliance programs (HHCPs), environmental cleaning (EC), and training sessions programs that hospitals or AFs with beds (hospitals) intended to implement in the future or develop (to be developed). We planned to examine whether the PHC training sessions programs have an effect on the development of hospital infection control programs designed to address these issues. The purpose of this study is to clarify the training session program provided by the Kawaguchi City PHC, which was effective in developing hospital infection control programs based on the results of the survey conducted after the training session. Methods In June 2023, a second training session that offered information on infection control practices was completed for 30 hospitals. This was followed by sending a questionnaire. We examined infection control programs to be developed and analyzed associations with the first learned information by training session (the first learned information). Results Twenty-four hospitals responded to the survey with a response rate of 80.0%. Half the respondents (12, 50.0%) had prepared for the infection control policy on carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), 11 hospitals (45.8%) had provided feedback on HHC, and four (16.7%) planned to conduct feedback on HHC. HHCPs were planned to be developed by 19 hospitals (79.2%), EC by five hospitals (20.8%), training session by 12 hospitals (50.0%), and screening of MDROs upon hospital admission (AS) by nine hospitals (37.5%). The first learned information, “the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and cost savings by implementing cleaning bundles (the effects of cleaning bundles),” was identified by 10 hospitals (41.7%), and “specific programs on providing feedback effective for developing hand hygiene compliance (specific feedback)” was learned by eight hospitals (33.3%). The first learned information regarding specific feedback was significantly associated with HHCPs to be developed (p = 0.044). The first learned information on the effects of cleaning bundles was significantly associated with HHCPs and HHC feedback to be developed (p = 0.023, 0.034). The training session programs were not significantly connected to EC, training session, or AS to be developed. Conclusions Infection control programs to be developed were linked to the provision of information on numerical effects by implementing specific feedback and cleaning bundles. We suggest that the PHC should develop infection control programs for the hospitals and provide training sessions, including numerical effects.