Purpose of The Project

The project aims to increase the level of infection control implemented in Tokushima Prefecture and to enhance its basis by developing infection area networks and training members of infection control teams.

• Ⅰ.

  Development of infection area networks

• Ⅱ.

  Training specialists who provide health care to protect patients from hospital-acquired infections

Project

Ⅰ. Development of Infection Srea Networks

• Joint collaboration conferences are held by hospitals in Tokushima Prefecture in which the fees for infection prevention measures are covered by insurance (Special Reimbursement 1 (※1)).
  Prefectural networks of health care institutions with Special Reimbursement Policies 1 and 2(※1) are established to enhance the basis for infection control.
• The University of Tokushima Hospital serves as a base to help hospitals with Special Reimbursement Policies 1 and 2 in the prefecture share information and intervene with each other.
• The university hospital encourages “hospitals with Special Reimbursement Policies 1 and 2”, medium- and small-scale ones, and clinics equipped with beds to establish infection control networks, share information, and intervene with each other.
• Community infection networks are established in collaboration with public health centers, schools, health care facilities for the elderly, and local governments whose needs related to infection control are high.
• In normal situations, these IT system-based networks aim to develop measures for preventing hospital-acquired infections with MRSA and other resistant bacteria, and addressing prolonged community-acquired infections. Furthermore, systems designed to respond effectively to disasters (including new strains of influenza and infection control in the event of a large-scale disaster) are also developed.

The establishment of infection area networks is expected to encourage multiple hospitals to collaborate with each other in order to intervene promptly in outbreaks of infections(※2) and reduce the incidence of medical care-related infections in normal situations.
The networks also aim to obtain information on the status of infections and their control following a large-scale natural disaster, and help provide support according to the needs.
The networks are designed to respond promptly to pandemics of new strains of influenza(※3), outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and severe infections from outside Japan.

Ⅱ.Training Infectious Disease Specialists

The University of Tokushima Hospital has developed a training program that helps multidisciplinary health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians, learn intensively about infections and their control in a short period of time.
I hope that as many medical specialists as possible participate in the program, regardless of whether they work in or outside the university, to obtain basic knowledge and learn techniques required for addressing infections and providing multidisciplinary health care.

Other Support and Goals for Human Resource Development

• The project promotes academic support activities to encourage health care professionals (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians), members of infection control teams, to become certified as specialists.
• The project promotes the training of physicians specializing in infectious diseases, ICN(※5), infection control pharmacists, and microorganism laboratory technicians in charge of infection control.
• Personnel who have undergone training are able to play leading roles in health care institutions and local governments.
• The project is designed to promote medical specialists’ participation in drills at evacuation centers to help them prepare for large-scale natural disasters, implement activities and provide advice in relation to infections and their control, collaborate with the “Tokushima Disaster Infection Control Team” and “Prefectural Division of Crisis Management of Tokushima Prefecture”, and train personnel who can play important roles in disaster infection control.