Hospital hygiene

The hospital's hygiene management is based on the Infection Protection Act and the guidelines for hospital hygiene and infection prevention, which are published and continuously updated by the Robert Koch Institute for the whole of Germany. It is the responsibility of the Clinical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene Department to create the essential organizational and structural conditions so that employees can take and implement all infection prevention and control measures. These include, for example, measures to break chains of infection (such as hand hygiene, isolation and disinfection measures), surveillance, the proper preparation of medical devices and the controlled and appropriate use of antibiotics perioperatively and therapeutically. The hygiene plan is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis.

The qualified hygiene specialists in the hygiene team are not only the point of contact as advisors for colleagues in medicine, nursing and all other professional groups in all matters relating to infection prevention, but they also ensure compliance with hygiene-related work processes. Among other things, they carry out inspections of all hospital areas, draw up hygiene documents, train employees and record any infections that occur.

The team also includes a hygiene technician who is responsible for compliance with hygiene standards in buildings and equipment. In the departments themselves, the doctors responsible for hygiene and the nurses responsible for hygiene ensure that hygiene standards are consistently implemented in everyday clinical practice: they are the link and point of contact between the ward (or functional areas) and the professional hygiene team.

The hygiene committee, which consists of senior hospital staff, the doctors responsible for hygiene and the hygiene team, acts as a supervisory body. Hospital hygiene measures, standards and work instructions are discussed and defined at regular meetings.