Joint prevention and surveillance of infectious diseases and hospital-acquired infections in Arad, Makó and Hódmezővásárhely

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Healthcare establishments in the eligible area aim to offer their patients services at the highest quality standards, comparable to the more advanced countries in the European Union. As noted in all programming documents for the area, while all hospitals need improving, the starting position from where they need to develop their medical services is largely different, with differences on the two sides of the border. Despite the good coverage with medical facilities, several hospitals on the Romanian side struggle with old infrastructure and poor equipment endowment which jeopardize their functioning and determine patients to seek medical care in Hungarian hospitals. One of these establishments is the Department for Infectious Diseases of the Arad County Clinical Hospital. The Department is of county relevance, as it offers treatment for infectious/contagious diseases, including for HIV/AIDS patients and has a Rabies Center.At the moment, Adult Infectious Diseases Department has a hospital activity covering the needs of patients with various pathologies (respiratory, digestive). The medical services provided to the sick are diverse, from continuous hospitalization / day and treatment of Sars-Cov-2 infected patients to outpatient services, including the administration of rabies vaccine or services to HIV-infected patients. The Csongrád-Csanád County Health Care Center – Hódmezővásárhely-Makó needs to renovate and rehabilitate one of the Mako Hospital's site building in order to offer hotel conditions for their hospitalized patients in two critical wards. The two institutions, based on previous joint projects, decided to partner up in order to use each other’s expertise in developing and implementing a project for the improvement of their respective infrastructure and to jointly tackle with a major problem of hospital environment, namely hospital acquired infections (HAI). In the world, millions of people suffer from a variety of serious health-related infections, some of which are acquired in healthcare facility. The cause of hospital infections are inadequate infrastructure, inadequate cleaning and lack of knowledge or irresponsible behavior of staff themselves.  The situation is aggravated by the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of germs and leads to diseases very difficult to treat, causing additional distress to patients, increasing morbidity and mortality and posing a threat also to hospital personnel. In the interest of the population ascribed to their hospitals, the project partnership set as main objective to improve health-care services and patient safety in three hospitals in Arad and Csongrad-Csanad counties. As a result of the project, it is expected that patients’ satisfaction with hospital services will grow and the incidence of HAI will be reduced. With better conditions, patients will turn to local hospitals which will reduce medical related cross-border migration. Implementation of the project will materialize in a modernized Department for Infectious Diseases in Arad, state of the art hotel conditions for patients, renovated and rehabilitated wards in Mako and a strategy for prevention and control of HAI developed and implemented in Csongrad-Csanad County Health Care Center Hódmezővásárhely and Makó. The beneficiaries of these results are 442.155 inhabitants of the two counties, the entire adult population from Arad county (340.772) and the population from Mako district (44.481) and  Hódmezővásárhely district (56.902). The year 2022 began with a further increase in the number of cases caused by infection with a new strain of Sars-Cov-2, much more contagious than the previous ones. Bed occupancy for Sars-Cov-2-infected patients has begun to rise, as well as the number of deaths. In these conditions, there is an urgent need for the purchase of new medical equipment to serve Adult Infectious Diseases Department for the treatment / diagnosis of patients. The list of necessary equipment was prepared by health professionals and it should be procured as soon as possible in response to the critical situation and to limit the spread of the virus and provide life-saving care to those in need. PP will renovate the current Internal Medicine ward situated in the hospital’s new wing, in order to relocate there the Surgery ward. The works will consist of paint works on the walls and ceilings, extension and reorganization of the medical fluids installations. In the old wing will be created smaller rooms for patients with adjacent bathrooms. Beside the construction of inner walls, other works consist of painting, replacement the electrical wiring and replacement of windows. In order to reduce the rate of hospital infections, Project Partner intends to prepare and implement a hospital infection prevention strategy during the project, which aims to introduce standardized prevention programs, validated by international practice.   Even if it is impossible to create a perfectly sterile environment, it is important to identify the place and moment when dangerous pathogens appear and multiply, in order to eliminate the risk of spreading. Project Partner will set up a team of professionals who will monitor the hospitals’ spaces and will qualify the cleaning personnel for the special requirements of medical environment and, with the contribution of external experts, will develop a long-term strategy that will include protocols for monitoring the pathogenic potential and for hand hygiene with recommendations for optimal hand hygiene practices and their promotion,  a training plan for the cleaning staff, a medium to long-term plan of action for identification and planning of financial resources, and quality management. Adequate equipment for identification of pathogens and decontamination will be purchased. A campaign to raise awareness about hand hygiene will be organized in schools. The results will be presented in a workshop open to medical specialists from Hungary and Romania. The Romanian partner will also organize a workshop in Arad, to present their experience related to infectious diseases and to work out a protocol for rapid alert in case of outbreaks. The total estimated budget of the project is 2,999,996.95 Euro, 1,800,000.00 Euro for Lead Partner, 1,199,996.95 for Project Partner. FEDR funding is 2,549,997.40 Euro. The partners plan to build on their common experience gained during the implementation of the project and develop the relationship between medical professionals in the future.

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