After the SARS epidemic ended, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) has been actively promoting an amendment to the “Communicable Disease Control Act” in order to further protect patient safety and prevent hospital associated infections, thus reinforcing the guidelines and codes related to nosocomial infection control. In July, 2007, the “Communicable Disease Control Act” was amended and promulgated. In addition, the “Inspection Code for Performance of Infection Control Practices in Medical Care Institutions” was amended according to Article 32 of the newly revised “Communicable Disease Control Act”, specifically outlining the infection control measures to be adopted by medical care institutions and the criteria of inspection to be followed by the competent authorities. More specifically, the newly revised “Inspection Code for Performance of Infection Control Practices in Medical Care Institutions” (hereinafter referred to as the “Inspection Code”) was promulgated in and enforced since January, 2008.
    The contents of the newly revised “Inspection Code” was amended in accordance with the related rules, regulations, accreditation standards and guidelines for infection control measures in Taiwan and from other countries. To conform to the new regulations, medical care institutions are first required to implement organizational infection control management. Besides setting up units dedicated to carry out infection control management within the organization and convened by the hospital superintendent of vice superintendent, medical care institutions are also required to allocate sufficient manpower to plan and execute infection control measures, and to develop appropriate hospital infection control related standard operation procedures and practice guidelines, which are to be thoroughly executed and regularly updated. Simultaneously, regular training events should be organized and various types of technical assistance should be provided when needed to further improve medical personnel’s knowledge of infection control. On the other hand, in response to the Hand Hygiene Campaign organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Patient Safety Goals set by Department of Health, hand-washing facilities and the timing of hand-washing for healthcare workers are also required to be included as items in the regular inspection. Furthermore, medical care institutions are also required to strengthen personnel’s health management and disease control resources stockpile such as personal protective equipment, and should form crisis handling mechanism to support the handling of large scale epidemic situations.
    The “Inspection Code” has also stipulated that medical care institutions should set up nosocomial infection surveillance and reporting mechanisms. For the purpose of establishing the national nosocomial infection surveillance database, Taiwan CDC has installed a newly revised Taiwan Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System (TNIS) in 2007. It is hoped that through the installation of the TNIS system, information such as the incidence of hospital associated infection (HAI) and the incidence of HAI caused by antimicrobial-resistant pathogens in hospitals at various levels is made readily accessible. Additionally, it is also hoped that through periodic data feedback, the interaction and communication established with the reporting hospitals will provide surveillance data, which can serve as references for medical care institutions to develop and implement the organizations’ infection control programs.
    In the recent years, Taiwan CDC has been making every effort to improve hospital infection control practices. With the assistance of the Hospital Infection Control Advisory Committee, Taiwan CDC has issued several infection control guidelines, which meet the domestic needs. When necessary, the guidelines are revised to keep them up to date, providing recommendations for medical care institutions to follow and to make modification and internalize into codes that suit their needs. Further, Taiwan CDC has constructed a dedicated webpage for Nosocomial Infection Control to provide guideline documents, health education materials and multimedia films for free download. For more information, please visit Taiwan CDC website http://www.cdc.gov.tw , and select: Health topics > Infection control > Nosocomial infection control from the website menu.