文摘
According to German law (e.g. Infection Protection Act 2011) hospitals, facilities for outpatient surgery and preventive care, rehabilitation facilities, dialysis facilities and day care hospitals must establish in-house procedures for infection control. The consolidation of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of infections within the hospital quality management system is crucial for good hospital hygiene practice. Providing a robust and high quality infection control system is an interdisciplinary challenge. The implementation of link physicians for infection control in each hospital department is one effort to distribute knowledge and skills on good hygiene practice. Link physicians are specially trained and responsible for infection control and prevention, continuing professional education on hygiene issues and the definition of standard operating procedures (SOP) within their department. The German Medical Association established a training scheme for link physicians for infection control. Based on this curriculum a certified interdisciplinary training course was established to provide in-depth knowledge and continuous updates for link physicians in Germany. Using a blended learning approach the course is time and cost-efficient and keeps link physicians up to date over time.