Surveillance of infection in home care.

Home care accreditation standards from the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations require a system for recording, reporting, and evaluating infections related to the services provided. We developed a surveillance system for home care related infections to meet these requirements. Our goal was to reduce the risk of infection and improve the quality of care. Definitions for home care-related infections were adapted from the Centers for Disease Control's 1988 definitions for nosocomial infections. The home health care staff assisted by reporting clients with possible infections. Surveillance was completed by the infection control coordinator. On the basis of our findings in the population, we concentrated our efforts on reducing the risk of catheter-related genitourinary infection in our home care patients.