JEDDAH, 18 December 2003 — The King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH) held a two-day symposium and workshop on the basics of infection control in health care facilities.
Hospital-acquired infection poses significant clinical and economic threats and the Kingdom faces unique challenges when addressing infection control, especially during the annual pilgrimage.
“After surveying many hospitals in the Makkah region, it became obvious that knowledge and practices of infection control are deficient and, most of the time, outdated. This will definitely have serious implications on patient care and patient well-being, considering the high mortality and high morbidity associated with hospital-acquired infections, and considering their impact on length of stay and cost of care,” said Dr. Samar Badreddine, chairperson of the organizing committee.
“Approximately 6 percent of the patients who enter hospitals in Saudi Arabia acquire an infection from the hospital,” said Dr. Badreddine. “This symposium’s goal is to identify the ways of acquiring, and reduce the rate of infection in a hospital. There are international standards for infection control and we want to apply them in our hospitals and make them a priority.
“Some of the problems we face are in hygiene procedures and the attitudes of hospital staff, but hospital administrators also need to realize the importance of infection control programs and invest in them because it is the well-being of patients that is at stake,” said Dr. Badreddine.
