Elements of an effective infection control program.

Abstract

In summary, the future direction of infection control in nursing homes was best stated by Eickhoff in 1978 when he said that failure to accept responsibility in hospital epidemiology will result in the loss of the opportunity to make the discipline "more scientific and to differentiate more clearly between sense and nonsense in hospital infection control." Today, ten years later, the various members of the health care team need to assume the same responsibilities in the nursing home setting, working together to advance the scientific basis of infection control and, in turn, to safeguard and improve the health of residents in long-term care institutions.