Infection prevention and patient safety is for many hospitals in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine an important topic. This is something what 20 hospitals in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine have in black and white writing. In June, the Foundation euPrevent | EMR has certified these hospitals with a quality seal ‘hygiene’.
In order to get this quality seal, an audit was conducted in every participating hospital. This audit was carried out by experts from neighbouring regions. Criteria they looked at were among others very practical. The experts for example visited wards to see how staff deal with hand hygiene. But not only the staff. They also looked at facilities for patients and visitors to be able to take care of hand hygiene. Also, the hospitals were asked to show protocols about hand disinfection on wards and they were asked how they train their staff about the appropriate use of antibiotics.
Experts from public health authorities, like a ‘Gesundheitsamt’ or ‘GGD’ have conducted the audits. They visited the participating hospitals to see if that hospital met the criteria in order to get the quality seal or not. The quality seals is valid for 3 years and meets always the latest scientific developments.
“Improvement of the quality of life of the citizens in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine is what we want to achieve”, said dr. Karl-Heinz Feldhoff clearly: he is the chairman of the foundation euPrevent | EMR and director of the public health authority in Heinsberg. He spoke highly of the representatives of the hospitals who were present at the presentation of the quality seal in Aachen (Germany): “every hospital met the quality goals and that is quite an achievement!”. The 20 hosiptals are residing in the regions VulkaanEiffel, Aachen, Düren, Euskirchen, Heinsberg (DE), Maastricht (NL) and Hasselt (BE).
Together with Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dott, member of the scientific board of the Foundation euPrevent | EMR, dr. Karl-Heinz Feldhoff presented the hospitals with the quality seal. A clear signal towards patients: there were the quality seal is, hygiene and infection prevention have priority!