Frost & Sullivan:Malaysian Government Unleashes Strategies to Eradicate Hospital-acquired Infections

Oct. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Malaysia was estimated to have 400,000 cases of HAI, amounting to 13.9 per cent of the total hospital admissions in 2010. Hence, the Malaysian Government is sparing no efforts to develop effective and efficient measures to stem the tide of this deadly infection. As the Government is coming up with protocols for the prevention and control of infections in line with the WHO’s guidelines, participants in the infection control market can utilise the opportunity to establish their presence in Malaysia. This could be accomplished by working together with healthcare service providers and influencers in the market.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Hospital-acquired Infection Incidence - Trends in Malaysia, finds that healthcare has been revolutionised with the setting up of infection control teams in hospitals across Malaysia, thereby reducing mortality and morbidity.

“The importance of infection control has been emphasized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Malaysia has been actively promoting the hand hygiene programme nation-wide,” says Frost & Sullivan Consultant Poornima Srinivasan. “Based on the recommendations from WHO, MOH is developing the Malaysian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System to streamline the present method of surveillance.”

Despite the tremendous measures taken by the MOH since 2001, prevalence of HAI in Malaysian hospitals is high when compared to international standards. HAI has also caused a huge strain on the country’s healthcare system. While continuous training and education programmes are organised by the MOH, healthcare workers operating in rural set-ups are not able to attend such programmes due to shortage of funds. Further, the shortage of both funds and manpower in public hospitals in Malaysia make it difficult to comply with patient safety regulations.

The role of infection control professionals (ICPs) is limited to developing policies, procedures and education programmes, and they require time to implement prevention and control interventions and track staff practices. Funding from sponsors will be vital for augmenting safety standards in the healthcare setting.

The key issue is that currently there is no mandatory reporting of HAI, and authorities collect HAI-related data from 14 out of the total 144 public hospitals. Monitoring and control of HAI are conducted monthly in all MOH hospitals in collaboration with the university hospitals. Similarly, private hospitals also collect incidences of HAI for both internal and external reporting.

The MOH has its own national incident reporting system. However, the Patient Safety Council Malaysia is planning to roll out a mandatory National Incident Reporting and Learning System on selected incidents to be reported by both public and private hospitals from 2011.

“Key opinion leaders expect improvements in the scenario after the reporting of infection control becomes mandatory,” says Srinivasan. “This will help raise the bar on the quality of healthcare services in Malaysia and bring it up to international standards.”

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail to Donna Jeremiah, Corporate Communications, at djeremiah@frost.com, with your contact details.

Hospital-acquired Infection Incidence - Trends in Malaysia is part of the Medical Devices Growth Partnership Service programme, which also includes research in the following: Hospital-acquired Infection Incidence - Trends in Australia. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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Hospital-acquired Infection Incidence - Trends in Malaysia
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Contact:
Donna Jeremiah
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
P: +603 6204 5832
F: +603 6201 7402
E: djeremiah@frost.com

Carrie Low
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
P: +603 6204 5910
F: +603 6201 7402
E: carrie.low@frost.com

http://www.frost.com

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Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's research and consulting services empower clients to generate, evaluate, and implement effective growth strategies.