Practical legal issues involved in control of nosocomial infections and coping measures

OBJECTIVE To investigate the health care workers' perception about the control of nosocomial infections, raise the legal awareness and take the effective measures so as to prevent the medical disputes.METHODS From Mar 2016 to May 2016, a questionnaire survey of 500 health care workers was conducted so as to understand the health care workers awareness about the concepts of nosocomial infections, related rules and regulations and patients' right to know and privacy as well as the related factors that may lead to the medical disputes such as architectural composition, isolation and disinfection measures, invasive operations, hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection of environmental objects, disposal of medical waste and writing medical records.RESULTS Among the study objects, 100% knew the concepts of nosocomial infections, the majority knew little about the related laws and regulations and did not think that the nosocomial infections could lead to medical disputes but thought that it was only a high risk factor, and the health care workers were weakest to be aware of that the architectural composition and the patients' right to know and privacy may lead to the medical disputes.CONCLUSION It is an effective way to strengthen the training of related laws and regulations for nosocomial infections, use management tools, establish multidisciplinary coordination mechanism and boost the execution power, especially the management of key department and key links, so as to reduce the incidence of nosocomial infection and prevent the medical disputes as well as the legal risk.