Korean J healthc assoc Infect Control Prev.  2019 Dec;24(2):88-96. 10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.88.

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

• Park JH
• Kim MN
• Lee H
• Kim NH
• Shin S

• KMID: 2467908
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.88

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.

Keyword

Infection control doctor; Laboratory medicine; Surveys and questionnaires

MeSH Terms

Curriculum
Electronic Mail
Hospitals, General
Hospitals, Teaching
Humans
Infection Control*
Korea
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Motivation
Surveys and Questionnaires

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Workforce of infection control related doctors (n=74). Abbreviations: Lab., laboratory; CM, clinical microbiology; ID, infectious disease.

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  Fig. 2 Work experience of laboratory medicine doctors in the department of infection control. Abbreviation: IC, infection control.

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  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.

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