Nosocomial infections constitute one of the biggest problems in current medical practice. Progressive dynamics of hospital infections is a result of the development of new diagnostic and operational techniques in medicine and growing resistance to the antibiotic therapy. The aim of this work was to evaluate the activities of institutional infection control teams in hospitals of the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodship.

The research included all 34 hospitals of the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodship which are supervised by the State Sanitary Inspection. The research, conducted in August 2005, was based on a survey concerning the activity of the Institutional Infection Control Teams. Hospitals with 81-300 beds (20 hospitals), which is 59% of all the hospitals, constituted the biggest group in the research.

Most of the hospitals appointed the Institutional Infection Control Teams - 97%. In most of the hospitals (58%) a nurse-epidemiologist is employed. However, the absence of a nurse-epidemiologist in 21% of the hospitals is an alarming fact. In the area of inside training in the institutional infection control teams, in the case of 24% of the hospitals in the group with 81-300 beds, no training on the principles of nosocomial infections prevention was provided in 2004. Registers of nosocomial infections are kept in most of the hospitals. The group of hospitals with more than 500 beds declared that they kept an active monitoring of nosocomial infections, while 38% from the group with 81-300 beds kept only a passive monitoring. In the area of supervising the hospital environment using bacteriological swabs, the small number of tests is alarming; for the hospitals with more than 501 beds, the average is 0.49/bed/year, and for the hospitals from the group with 81-300 beds, it is 1.43/bed/year.

The institutional infection control teams play a key role in fighting nosocomial infections. Only activities focused on infection surveillance and education of hospital staff, supported by extensive cooperation of all employees, will result in an improved sanitary situation as far as nosocomial infections are concerned.