Since its inception in the 1960s, the specialty of infection prevention and control has grown considerably. The field took shape in the 1970s following the landmark Study on the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC) project and grew in importance with the emergence of employee safety and multidrug-resistant organisms in the 1980s.1,2 In the 1990s and into the 2000s, the focus on hospital-acquired infection (HAI) prevention grew, so the field played a larger role in regulatory, patient safety, and quality improvement issues. In the present day, infection control data are frequently available to the public and impact hospital finances and healthcare insurance reimbursements.
Authors: Keith S. Kaye, Deverick J. Anderson, Evelyn Cook, Susan S. Huang, Jane D. Siegel, Jerry M. Zuckerman, and Thomas R. Talbot
