Practice and System Factors Impact on Infection Prevention and Control in General Practice during COVID-19 across 33 Countries: Results of the PRICOV Cross-Sectional Survey

Claire Collins; Esther Van Poel; Milena Šantrić Milićević; Katica Tripkovic; Limor Adler; Torunn Bjerve Eide; Liubove Murauskiene; Adam Windak; Katarzyna Nessler; Bernard Tahirbegolli; Sara Willems

doi:10.3390/ijerph19137830

Practice and System Factors Impact on Infection Prevention and Control in General Practice during COVID-19 across 33 Countries: Results of the PRICOV Cross-Sectional Survey

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 26;19(13):7830. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137830.

Affiliations

¹ Research Centre, Irish College of General Practitioners, D02 XR68 Dublin, Ireland.
² Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
³ Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
⁴ Institute of Public Health Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
⁵ Department of Family Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
⁶ Department of General Practice, University of Oslo, 0318 Oslo, Norway.
⁷ Public Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁸ Department of Family Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-061 Krakow, Poland.
⁹ Management of Health Institutions and Services, Heimerer College, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo.

Abstract

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is an evidence-based approach used to reduce the risk of infection transmission within the healthcare environment. Effective IPC practices ensure safe and quality healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for enhanced IPC measures and the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the need for strict adherence to the basic principles of IPC. This paper aims to describe the IPC strategies implemented in general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the factors that impact their adoption. Data were collected by means of an online self-reported questionnaire among general practices. Data from 4466 practices in 33 countries were included in the analysis. Our results showed a notable improvement in IPC during COVID-19 with more practices reporting that staff members never wore nail polish (increased from 34% to 46.2%); more practices reporting that staff never wear a ring/bracelet (increased from 16.1% to 32.3%); and more practices using a cleaning protocol (increased from 54.9% to 72.7%). Practice population size and the practice payment system were key factors related to adoption of a) range of IPC measures including patient flow arrangements and infrastructural elements. An understanding of the interplay between policy, culture, systemic supports, and behavior are necessary to obtain sustained improvement in IPC measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; general practice/family medicine; health system; infection prevention and control; interventions; organizational.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Cross Infection* / prevention & control
Cross-Sectional Studies
General Practice*
Humans
Infection Control / methods
Pandemics / prevention & control

Grants and funding

The PRICOV-19 data collection was undertaken without funding in individual countries. A small grant was received by Ghent University from the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN) to cover data cleaning; no grant number applies. The APC for this paper was funded by the first author’s institution—the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).