Role of Laboratory Medicine Doctors and the Rising Importance on the Infection Control of Medical Facilities

Jae Hyeon Park; Mi-Na Kim; Hyukmin Lee; Nam Hee Kim; Sue Shin

doi:10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.88

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Park, Kim, Lee, Kim, and Shin: Role of Laboratory Medicine Doctors and the Rising Importance on the Infection Control of Medical Facilities

Original Article

Korean Journal of Healthcare-Associated Infection Control and Prevention 2019; 24(2): 88-96.

Published online: 31 December 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.88

Role of Laboratory Medicine Doctors and the Rising Importance on the Infection Control of Medical Facilities

Jae Hyeon Park¹, Mi-Na Kim², Hyukmin Lee³, Nam Hee Kim^1,⁴, Sue Shin^1,⁴

¹Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

²Department of Laboratory Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

³Department of Laboratory Medicine and Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

⁴Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to: Sue Shin, jeannie@snu.ac.kr

Received 31 March 2019 Revised 4 June 2019 Accepted 3 September 2019

Korean Society for Healthcare-Associated Infection Control and Prevention

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Abstract

Background

Public concern for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has been rising since the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Korea in 2015. HAI control has been an essential training curriculum for residents of laboratory medicine since 2007. This study aimed to investigate the role of the laboratory physician as an infection control doctor (ICD).

Methods

In March 2017, email surveys were conducted with the directors of or clinical microbiologists at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of 75 secondary- or tertiary-care hospitals. They collected data about hospital characteristics, infection control committees and departments, and careers in infection control; there were a total of 74 valid responses (98.7%)

Results

Fourteen of 38 teaching hospitals (36.8%) had an on-site resident training curriculum at the department of infection control. This increased to 11 of 26 hospitals (42.3%) where laboratory physicians were working as ICDs and 7 of 11 (63.7%) where the hospitals hosted more than 900 beds. A total of 51 of the hospitals (68.9%) had laboratory physicians as ICDs. Only nine of the other hospitals (39.1%) had enough ICDs of other specialties to meet the workforce standards for the infection control incentives; six (23.1%) had a shortage of laboratory physicians.

Conclusion

Laboratory physicians are major human resources of ICDs in the general hospitals; however, there is still a lack of laboratory physician ICDs in Korea. Therefore, on-site resident training curriculums for infection control should be implemented by all teaching hospitals.

Keywords: Infection control doctor, Laboratory medicine, Surveys and questionnaires

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Workforce of infection control related doctors (n=74).

Abbreviations: Lab., laboratory; CM, clinical microbiology; ID, infectious disease.

Fig. 2

Work experience of laboratory medicine doctors in the department of infection control.

Abbreviation: IC, infection control.

Fig. 3

The presence of resident training course in the department of infection control in teaching hospitals (n=38).

Abbreviation: IC Dept., department of infection control.

Table 1

Characteristics of responders (n=74)

Table 2

The change of workforces in department of infection control after September 2016 in which infection control incentives were started

Table 3

Status of laboratory physicians responsible for infection control doctors

Abbreviation: ICD, infection control doctor.

Table 4

Participation in infection control activities according to the laboratory physician's career as an infection control doctor (n=68)

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ORCID iDs: Sue Shin
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4791-8671
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