Effect of proactive infection control measures on benchmarked rate of hospital outbreaks: An analysis of public hospitals in Hong Kong over 5 years

Background: Hospital outbreaks of epidemiologically important pathogens are usually caused by lapses in infection control measures and result in increased morbidity, mortality, and cost. However, there is no benchmark to compare the occurrence of hospital outbreaks across hospitals. Methods: We implemented proactive infection control measures with an emphasis on timely education of health care workers and hospitalized patients at Queen Mary Hospital, a teaching hospital. Our benchmarked performance (outbreak episodes per 1 million patient discharges and 1 million patient-days) was compared with those of other regional public hospitals without these additional proactive measures in place between 2010 and 2014. Results: During the study period, Queen Mary Hospital had 1 hospital outbreak resulting in 1.48 and 0.45 outbreak episodes per 1 million patient discharges and patient-days, respectively, values significantly lower than the corresponding overall rates in the 7 acute regional hospitals (24.26 and 6.70 outbreak episodes per 1 million patient discharges and patient-days, respectively; P <.001) and that of all 42 public hospitals in Hong Kong (41.62 and 8.65 outbreak episodes per 1 million patient discharges and patient-days, respectively; P <.001). Conclusions: The results of this large study on benchmarked rate of hospital outbreaks per patient discharges or patient-days suggests that proactive infection control interventions may minimize the risk of hospital outbreaks.