Infection Control

Infection Control services at Breach Candy Hospital Trust

Breach Candy Hospital Trust follows the policy of “ zero tolerance” to hospital acquired infections. The hospital has an empowered multidisciplinary Hospital Infection Control Committee which is chaired by Dr. F. E. Udwadia and Director (Medical). This committee meets every month and discusses in details practices, policies and infections of the previous month. The function of implementation of infection control policies set by the HICC is performed by an equally empowered & dedicated infection control team (ICT) comprising of Microbiologists, infection control officer and infection control nurse who are actively involved in surveillance, monitoring, audits and training towards infection control practices and policies.

BCHT is enrolled in an international multicentric surveillance program conducted under the aegis of International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) since 2008. Under this program we track all our device associated infections (DAIs) like Central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI), ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). We monitor our rates every month and also annually and have been successful in maintaining low device associated infection rates for many years now. Our DAI rates match the rates of National Health Safety network (NHSN) of United States of America (USA) and other developed countries. We also track surgical site infections in our hospital and our rates are comparable to best institutes internationally.

This has been possible because of a stringent and constantly evolving infection control program that we follow in our hospital. We make every effort to adopt evidence based practices which have been proven to prevent infections. More than 10 years ago, we were the first hospital in Mumbai to adopt collapsible containers for infusion of IV fluids, a practice shown to reduce blood stream infections. Some of the important interventions we have adopted to prevent health care associated infections (HCAIs) are hand hygiene with hand rubs for every patient, care bundle polices for device associated infections, transmission based precautions, thorough terminal cleaning of the environment and strict sterile supply policies.

In order to ensure strict sterile supply processes for different types of invasive procedures, we have equipments like steam autoclaves, Plasma sterilizers, ethylene oxide based sterilizers, washer disinfectors and automated endoscope reprocessors. Every reprocessed instrument goes through stringent quality control of batch based chemical indicators, process indicators and biological indicators. We stringently adhere to manufacturers guidelines on reprocessing of all devices.

An integral part of our infection control program is training. The Infection Control team (ICT) conducts periodic and regular training for our staff on our infection control policies in the form of onsite activities, hand hygiene week and infection prevention week. We have also successfully conducted four annual national Continued Medical Education (CME) programs on “Audits in Infections Prevention and Control” which are attended by infection control personnel from all over India.

We believe in empowering our patients with knowledge of Infection prevention. For the same, we have done awareness campaigns on hand hygiene, conjunctivitis prevention and prevention of flu transmission. A patient information flier is available at our OPD reception area containing common FAQs on infection prevention practices. The flier is intended to help patients, their family members and visitors to follow correct measures to prevent the transmission of infection both in the hospital and at home.

Infection control is a team effort and the entire team of Breach Candy Hospital Trust, at the helm being our CEO, our Medical Director, Nursing Director, the Infection control team along with our nursing team, sterile supplies team, lab team, physiotherapy team and other ancillary staff, we are committed to making every effort that goes in preventing every single HCAI and giving our patient a quick and safe recovery back home.