Assessment of National infection prevention and control program in 2018-2023 at the national level: analysis of trends and priority directions of improvement

The Implementation of Key Components of an Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Program at the national level is designed to support countries and health care institutions in developing and strengthening IPC programs and strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAI). In order to comprehensively assess the implementation of IPC programs at the national level, the World Health Organization developed the Infection Control Assessment Tool (IPCAT2). The objective of IPCAT2 is to provide technical assistance to countries to determine which core components of IPC are implemented, as well as to identify gaps or weaknesses in the key components of IPC Aim - is to conduct a comparative assessment of the national IPC program at the national level in Ukraine. Materials and methods. In order to assess the implementation of key components of the IPC program in Ukraine, IPCAT2 was used and the national program was assessed in 2018, 2021 and 2023 by analyzing existing regulatory and technical documents. Results. The assessment of the national IPC program at the national level in Ukraine demonstrated the strengthening of the national program from 17.5% in 2018 to 59.8% implementation in 2023. According to the results of the assessment in 2023, the implementation of the IPC Program was 96% of the recommended indicator, the implementation of the IPC Guidelines - 56%, the IPC Education and Training component - 38%, Epidemiological surveillance for HAI - 73%, IPC Multimodal strategies - 63%, IPC Monitoring and feedback - 33%. The greatest progress is noted in the implementation of the national IPC program, IPC guidelines and the implementation of multimodal approaches. The least implemented aspects are education, training and monitoring of IPC. Conclusions. The IPC program assessment with the IPCAT2 tool is a useful tool for optimizing and strengthening IPC at the national level. The assessment helped to form priority areas for the development of the IPC program in Ukraine. The author declares no conflict of interest.